Selective Memory
by MaXandeRoswell
Summary: When the Roswell gang hears of a town where the authorities overlook the unusual, they think it's the perfect place to hide. How will the Scoobies deal with the First,FBI,and SGC all at once? Chp35 is Up! BtVS/Roswell/SG1
1. All Aboard the Short Bus

Selective Memory A Buffy/Roswell/SG-1 Crossover

* * *

Setting: Roswell: after season 3 , Buffy: During Season 7 after "Help", SG-1: after season 7

Chapter 1 - All Aboard The Short Bus

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

"Are you sure, Michael?" Max glanced to Liz, who gave him a look. It was her 'listen to Michael, he's actually making sense' look.

"I'm as sure as I can be, Maxwell. I overheard a guy talking to his buddy about the place - he wasn't exactly handing out travel brochures," Michael shot back.

"And you want us to up and run off to California chasing some rumor?" His eyes narrowed, Max wasn't exactly impressed. Michael always ran off half-cocked. For once he wished that he would at least think before he told everybody his plans.

It was Isabel who came to Michael's defense. "Yes, Max. Like we're _so_ tied down to this motel." Her eyes flicked toward the now-red VW bus parked outside. "Where else have we got to go? It could be worth taking the trip just on the off chance that Michael's right."

Max looked, as he usually did, to Liz. She nodded. "Isabel's right, Max. A place where the authorities overlook anything out of the ordinary would make it really hard for the Special Unit to get word of us."

Michael looked offended. "Why is it 'Isabel's right'? Why can't it be that 'Michael's right'?"

Maria took his hand and squeezed. "Don't take it personally, space-boy. I just made Liz promise not to contribute to your ego."

Michael resumed his angered, silent brooding. "So, we're going to California?" Maria asked, sounding excited.

"Fine," Max said. Liz took his hand as he continued. "It looks like I'm outvoted. We just have to make sure that we avoid Roswell on the way back west. Sunnydale, wherever you are, here we come."

* * *

They headed out the very next morning to begin their long, meandering drive north from West Virginia to Ohio, then west to Seattle. Their bus turned another color in each state they drove through, with Liz making sure that they never had exactly the same color twice. When they made the turn south to California, it was plain white, with some rust spots around the fenders.

Everybody was very tired when they finally pulled into Sunnydale, California. Isabel had fallen asleep on Kyle's lap, and Max and Liz had dozed off together hours ago. Maria was having trouble opening her eyes, but Michael somehow managed to stay wide-eyed and alert in the driver's seat. It was well after midnight, and the town was mostly deserted.

Michael was obviously not happy. "Does this town have anything but cemeteries?" He pulled over by the side of the road and looked at the map he'd folded out. He really wished that Nasedo had lived long enough to teach him that whole 'scanning' thing where he could just store a copy of it in his brain. "Where the hell is that motel?" He paused as he heard a ringing sound, like metal hitting metal. His eyes narrowed and he looked around for the source of the sound. It was coming from the graveyard right next to him.

Climbing out of the van, he walked toward the ringing sound. He was really curious. He burned a hole in the fence and walked through, and was taken aback by what he saw.

A short blond girl was fighting a group of men. She was holding a sword, and so were one or two of the men. He noticed a dark-haired boy sitting on a tombstone nearby. He was saying something, but Michael was too far away to hear him.

The dark-haired boy must have been the leader of the attackers. Otherwise he'd be doing something other than just sitting there drinking a... was that a Snapple? Score! Michael could beat the bad guy, rescue the girl, AND get a Snapple. It might be a good night after all.

* * *

Xander was waiting for Buffy to kill this group of vamps. It seemed to be taking her a long while, apparently some of them were better than the fledges that one would normally find in a group this big. Xander had counted six of them. Buffy could handle six, he was sure. He laid out the box of donuts on the tombstone he was sitting on, and produced two Snapples from his paper bag and popped one open. He took a swig. "You know, Buff, I've got donuts right here, you might want to hurry up so we can snack out before we do the next cemetery."

Buffy nodded. "Sorry, Xander. It's been hard to get a good workout lately, I was just letting them work me up to a sweat." She flashed a grin. "But for donuts? Consider them dust."

Xander started to reply when he saw another person coming toward the group, from behind Buffy. Xander put down his Snapple and picked up his axe. "I'm sorry, buddy, but you weren't invited to dance."

The shadowed figure raised a hand, and Xander did his best Greg Louganis, which unfortunately for him, meant hitting his head on a tombstone as he flew through the air and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Buffy shouted, "Xander!" She quickly and efficiently dusted all the surrounding vamps, beheading one, staking the next, ducking under a clumsy punch from an obvious fledgling, and alternately beheading or staking the rest. As they fell to dust, she turned on the new figure, a long-haired guy in dark clothes.

"And what kind of demon are you? You look human enough. Warlock maybe?" she asked.

* * *

Michael stood there, stunned. He'd taken the guy out no problem, but he just saw that little blond chick kill six guys by turning them into dust. In about three seconds. Had they been Skins? Max had to know about this. Anybody that could kill six Skins that easily was dangerous. Strike that, Dangerous. Michael, for once, did the only sensible thing. He turned around, and ran. As soon as he made it back to the van, he drove off as fast as he could, bringing everybody awake with a screech of burning rubber. "Max! Wake up! We've got a problem!"

* * *

Two hours later, the Roswell gang sat in their seedy motel room. Isabel had gone to work immediately cleaning, declaring the rat-trap unfit for human or alien dwelling. After a half-hour under Isabelle's watchful and somewhat obsessive-compulsive eye, the place practically sparkled. Max and Michael were still debating what they'd seen and Liz and Maria had gone out to get some supplies at the nearest convenience store.

"You know, Max, if there are Skins here, this town could be another Copper Summit. It could explain a lot of the weird stuff that goes on here." Isabel interjected now that her attention was back on them.

"The thought had crossed my mind, Maxwell," Michael added.

"I don't think so," Max said. "First of all, if there were other Skins on earth, Nicholas wouldn't have called it a 'death sentence' when we destroyed their other husks. He was their leader. Surely he would simply have taken a husk from one of the other Skin cells, if such things existed."

"OK, good point." Kyle piped in. "So then maybe these Skins came later?"

"Or maybe they're not Skins at all," Max said flatly.

"What do you mean?" Isabel asked.

Max looked at Michael. "Michael, you said that they turned to dust when they were stabbed and cut." Michael nodded, and Max continued. "But Skins were practically indestructible unless you hit their plugs. Being stabbed, unless they were stabbed REALLY HARD in the plug, wouldn't do much of anything to them."

Isabel's eyes widened and she looked a little scared. Michael's eyes had the opposite reaction. "So if they're not Skins, what are they? What else turns to dust when you kill them?"

Max shook his head. "I don't know. But I'm guessing we'd better find out."

Isabel looked worried. Kyle looked upset. Max looked determined. Michael defaulted to angry. "Then first thing tomorrow we need to find that girl. She seemed to know what was going to happen when she killed them."

* * *

Liz and Maria pulled into the Gas'n'Go. "OK, Maria. You get on supplies, I'll gas up the bus." Maria nodded, and headed off into the store, while Liz went around to the gas cap and took it off. She placed a hand over the card reader, and concentrated. Green sparks leaped off her hand and into the machine. A moment later, it flashed, "Make your selection." Pushing the Premium button, she grabbed the hose and began to fill it up. She saw Maria walking around inside the little store. As soon as she finished pumping the gas, she bounced into the store herself.

"Hey Liz, check it out, they sell little sharpened crosses in here! I thought they were pencils at first, but they don't even have any lead in them, they're just wood!"

The clerk eyed them suspiciously. Liz rolled her eyes. "Supplies, Maria!" She looked down at Maria's hands and found two Snapples, a bag of chips, three bags of marshmallows and three little bottles of Tabasco sauce. "Well, that does Max, Michael and Isabel... what about the rest of us?"

Maria looked chagrined. "Well, I've only got two hands, Can you grab me one of those things?" she said, pointing to one of the cross necklaces. Liz smiled. "Sure."

As they walked out, arms loaded with snacks and drinks, a shadowy figure watched them with yellow eyes from around the corner, and started walking toward them.

Maria slid the door to the bus closed on their treasure trove of snack foods. Liz had already emptied her load and gone around to the other side to get in the bus. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Maria was grabbed, and two sharp teeth sank into her neck, her assailant's yellow eyes flashing with the taste of the fresh blood now flowing into his mouth. Maria screamed. Liz ran around the bus and saw what was happening. Instantly her hand flew out, and green sparks crackled along it. The vampire was thrown a good ten yards and landed flat on the ground. A moment later he got up and ran, but Liz had already gone to Maria, and seen all the blood coming from her best friend's neck. Max would need to heal it. Liz tied her jacket as tight as she could around the wound and under Maria's other arm, then moved her as gently as possible into the bus. She wasted no time getting back to the motel.

* * *

She fished her key out and opened the door. "Max! Maria needs your help!"

Max got up, sensing Liz's fear of wasting time. Walking toward the door, he asked, "What's wrong?" The others all got up to follow.

"We were at the Gas'N'Go, and this guy just jumped out of nowhere and attacked Maria.. He, I don't know, he bit her neck."

"Bit her neck? What kind of sick freaks are we dealing' with here?" Michael demanded. The thought of anything bad happening to Maria had really set him bristling.

"I don't know, but Max, she needs your help!"

Max looked into Liz's eyes and nodded. Without another word he placed one hand on Maria's abdomen and one on her wound. A soft white light appeared under his hand, and sweat appeared on his forehead. A few moments later, she woke with a start and a look like she'd just been dumped into an ice water bath. "What happened?" Maria asked.

Liz explained what had happened at the Gas'n'Go. "So if Max brought me back, does that mean I'm... one of you, now?"

"Yeah, you're an alien now," Michael put in, "so now you can quit calling me space-boy."

"I don't call you space-boy because you're an alien, Michael. I call you space-boy because that's where you left your brain," Maria explained. "The fact that you're an alien is just coincidence."

"As cute as your little lovers' tiffs are," Isabel interjected, "don't we have some important questions to answer?"

"Yeah, like who bites people in the neck?" Michael asked. "This isn't some Bram Stoker movie, Maxwell, this is real life."

Max hushed them all. "Well the only lead we have on it so far is this blond girl. Liz, can you?"

Liz nodded, and reached out a hand to Michael. She'd gotten better at getting the visions when she wanted to, over months of practice. For a few moments she stared off into space, and then took a step back as she steadied herself against the moment of disorientation that followed her flashes. "What did you see?" Max asked.

"I saw a girl, brunette, maybe fifteen or sixteen, really pretty. And a blond girl, shorter, also pretty. A little older. They felt connected in some way. And there was something... different... about both of them."

"It's settled, then. They could be like us... and might have some answers." Max said. "We'll start looking for her in the morning."

* * *

The room was dark except for a single cone-shaped light shining down on the plain gray table. A man sat studying the 8x10 glossy surveillance photos. They were too far behind. The Special Unit was falling apart, and losing its government backing. They needed to accomplish their goal of capturing the aliens before they were disbanded completely. At the moment, it was little more than the two of them left.

"What is it, Mr. Franco?" Agent Barnes asked.

"We've received information which puts the subjects in Seattle, sir." Franco informed him.

"Seattle?" He looked over at the sign for West Virginia Highway 2, and sighed. "Are you sure? It's a long way to go. How did they get there when they were just here?"

"We don't know, sir. But a group matching their description was spotted at a gas station a few miles outside Seattle, and it's the only lead we've had in months."

Barnes sighed. "We're getting closer, I think. We'll find them, Franco."

"Yes sir," Franco dutifully replied.

"We'll find them. These creatures can't run forever."

* * *

Dawn sat in school, waiting for the bell to ring. Math was boring, as usual. She almost wished her teacher would go back to singing the lessons like when Sweet was around. Still, at least it was just about over... 3. 2. 1. Dawn grabbed her bag and practically ran to the door. She liked sitting outside under a tree with her lunch. She opened the bag and pulled her sandwich out. Xander had gotten good at making sandwiches. Peanut butter and strawberry preserves with marshmallow fluff on wheat bread. Just the right amounts, and with the jam in the middle, so the bread hadn't gotten soggy. The crusts were trimmed off, and it was cut neatly from corner-to-corner. Xander was becoming a regular mister mom.

Dawn knew he was just trying to keep busy so he didn't have to think about Anya. He had taken on more and more responsibility, and was now putting in a full day's work, being Mr. Mom to the Summers household, and even patrolling with Buffy at night. Dawn worried that it was too much for him, but he needed it... for now.

Looking out over the schoolyard, she spotted a really hot guy just outside the fence, talking to a pretty girl with long dark hair. The girl was pointing at something. Dawn did a double-take. The girl was pointing at HER. The guy was looking at her really intensely. Buffy would be out in a minute to join her for lunch, she should probably mention it.

And she did, when Buffy plopped down next to her a minute later. "Buffy, I don't mean to alarm you, but that girl over there's pointing me out to some guy, outside the school fence. Is somebody looking for me again? I hope he's not another wayward Hell-god. Last time we got chased all over a-an' you died, and I can't deal with that again!" she whined. All that in one breath. Jeez, she could give Willow a run for her money sometimes.

"Well, if some-body's going to be looking for you, at least it's somebody hot." Buffy said, squinting. "In fact, he looks familiar..." Buffy trailed off. "Ford?" She exclaimed. "It can't be."

"Buffy, the girl's gone."

Buffy looked again and sure enough, the guy was there, still drilling through them with his eyes, but the girl was gone. They looked around, and the girl stepped out from behind the tree. "Hi," she said shyly. She sat down without asking, facing both Dawn and Buffy, and pushed her hair out of her face behind her ear. "I'm Liz, and... I think we need to talk."


	2. Enter the Wagon

Chapter 2 - Enter the Wagon

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

"Ha-hi, Liz. I'm Dawn," Dawn said. She held out her hand, and Liz shook it. Liz seemed to teeter as she gripped Dawn's hand, and then focused again slowly.

"And I'm Buffy," her sister added. "Nice to meet you."

"Thanks," Liz said. "I... I guess I shouldn't beat around the bush." Liz took a deep breath and jumped in. "What do you know about people who turn to dust when you kill them, Buffy?"

The whole world got deathly quiet. Liz held her breath waiting for something to happen. Dawn was stunned that somebody would ask a question like that out loud before a perfect stranger.

And Buffy took a moment to take a breath. "I might know something. Hear all sorts of rumors in this town about what goes on at night."

Liz bit her lip. "See, the thing is, a friend of mine saw you in a cemetery last night, and you killed a bunch of huys and they turned into dust. So... what were they?"

Dawn spoke up. "They were vampires, a-an Buffy's job is to kill them..."

"Dawn." Buffy interrupted. "Slowly with the newbies. She's already wigging out."

"No - no, it's not that.. but vampires? We thought they were some kind of aliens."

"No," Buffy replied. "Aliens aren't real. But the bad news is that the things that go bump in the night... vampires, werewolves, demons... they are."

"He said you asked him 'What kind of demon are you?'" Liz said under her breath, trying to work things out.

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "Your 'friend' is that guy last night that nearly killed my Xander?"

"He didn't mean to seriously hurt him... but in Michael's defense, the guy DID come at him with an axe." Liz sounded a bit annoyed.

"And what did 'Michael' do, exactly? Is he a witch?"

"A what?" Liz asked.

"Clearly not," Dawn said. "At least, if he is a witch, he clearly didn't tell you."

"He's not a witch," A new voice said.

Dawn looked up and saw the totally hot guy come up and sit down next to Liz. Glancing over at Buffy, she thought that her sister was also clearly enjoying the view.

"Ford?" Buffy asked.

"I'm Max. Are you OK?" he asked Buffy, who was clearly disturbed.

"I'm fine," she said, putting on her best poker face. "You just remind me a lot of somebody I used to know."

"Ah." Max said. He turned to Liz. "Why are we accusing Michael of being a witch?"

"Well he did wave a hand and toss Xander into the air like a ragdoll." Buffy said. "Knocked him clean out when he hit his head on a tombstone, and came up later with a mild concussion. I REALLY don't like people who hurt my friends," she added. "_Really_."

"Hey, Michael was just coming to rescue you when your friend pulled an axe on him."

"A likely story," Buffy said, with a sarcastic face. "So if he isn't a witch, what is he?"

"He's, um.. psychic. Telekinetic." Liz said quickly.

"Cool!" Dawn said. "Ca-an he teach me?" she asked hopefully. Buffy glared at her, Max looked a little shocked that they would take something like that so well, and Liz smiled.

"It's... a talent you sort of have to be born with." Liz explained. "It has to do with using the electrochemistry of the brain to manipulate the energy that comprises the surrounding matter. I've been studying it, and it seems to require a specific kind of brain to have the necessary affinity with the energy required."

Dawn looked thoughtful. "You know, Buffy, I think we should introduce her to Willow."

"That's not a bad idea, Dawnie. They can geekspeak to their heart's content about the nature of the energy of the universe..."

"That's not what we're really here to discuss," Max asked. "Last night you killed six Skins, and we want to know how you knew about them, how you knew how to kill them, and who you are..."

Liz stopped him there. "According to these girls, they weren't Skins, Max. They were vampires."

"Vampires," Max repeated with a little half-laugh. When nobody joined him, he changed his tone. "Vampires?"

Buffy just smiled at him. "Vampires. You know, the undead. People who were killed by other vampires and had their blood mixed so a demon could take over their dead body. Kill them with a stake in the heart, or beheading, or fire or sunlight. Holy water works too, but it only burns them, really. And a cross can hold one off, if it's not too powerful."

Max looked at her like she had a giraffe growing out of her head. "Vampires."

"This one's really cute, Buffy, but he's pretty slow with expanding the vocabulary."

"Give him time, Dawn." Liz admonished. "I'm still not sure I believe it either."

Max shook his head. "Liz... is she for real?"

Liz nodded. "She's telling the truth. When I shook her hand I saw," she paused for a moment, "well, I saw enough to make me believe her."

"Can you read auras?" Dawn asked.

Liz's eyes narrowed. She glanced at Max. "I think we're talking a bit too much in public."

"We're not public," Dawn said. "Nothing around here's public."

"What do you mean by that," Max asked.

"The people in this town will go to any lengths to avoid realizing that anything out-of-the-ordinary going on." Buffy said. "The police think that the vampires are gangs on PCP, and the hospital's coroner rules that most deaths by vampire bite are accidents where people fell on a barbecue fork."

"Yeah," Dawn said, "This town has the highest death-by-barbecue-fork rate in the world." She practically giggled in her sarcastic glee.

"That's something to keep in mind," Max said, smiling.

Dawn's expression got serious again. "So, how did you know that Buffy was telling the truth?" Dawn asked.

* * *

"I bet they're not even talking to them," Michael said.

"What?" Maria looked up at him and gave him a lazy smile.

"Max and Liz. You know that when they get together they get all.."

"All what?" Maria's grin widened as she watched Michael squirm.

Michael just gave her his normal stoically annoyed look.

At that moment, the door to the room opened and Max and Liz came back in.

"Well, we found some things out."

* * *

A few hours later, a yellow VW Bus pulled up in front of 1630 Revello Drive.

"Here we are..." Isabel said. "Cute."

"Given what we've been told about this town, I'm a little worried that having guests for dinner means, you know... eating the guests." Kyle replied.

"We were told to meet them here, so that's what we'll do." Max said.

"They seemed nice," Liz said. "I liked Dawn. She's sharp for a tenth grader."

"Yeah," Kyle said, "because our three and a half years on her is a vast difference in wealth of knowledge and experience."

"Hey!" Maria said, "We've been through more than anybody else could possibly have been through in the last three years. We've GROWN." She looked over at Michael. "Well, some of us have. I still have hope for space-boy."

"Maria!" Michael said.

Maria ignored him.

He pretended not to notice, and changed the subject. "Well, let's go in. Maxwell, you go first, in case they come at us with weapons again."

"Your concern for my welfare is touching, Michael."

"Hey, if you die, I get to be the king, for about two minutes until they kill me too."

"That's our space-boy, always the optimist," Maria said.

* * *

Xander looked up as the doorbell rang. Standing in the doorway were three of the hottest girls he'd ever seen. And that was saying something given that he'd seen Buffy, Faith, Cordelia, Anya... "Hi!" The tall blonde girl in the middle flashed a dazzling smile. He got a little dizzy. "We're here to see Buffy? I'm Isabel, and this is Maria and Liz, and they're Kyle, Max, and Michael." It took Xander a minute to be able to look past Isabel and see the boys. His eyes locked on Michael.

"You!" Xander exclaimed.

"Xander!" Dawn said. "We told them to come." She pushed Xander out of the doorway, and waved them in, sans verbal invitation in practiced Sunnydale style.

The Roswell gang entered, and Dawn showed them to the living room. With the Scoobies and the Roswell gang all there, sitting room was at a premium, and most of the seats were already occupied. Xander plopped in the middle of the couch, between Buffy and a readheaded girl who gave them a smile that was almost matronly.

Xander looked at Buffy. "There's four of us and six of them. is that good odds?"

Buffy just rolled her eyes. "Thanks for coming, guys. I think we all need to lay our cars on the table..."

"Cards, Buff" Dawn corrected.

"My bad. Slip of the tongue. Our _cards_ on the table. You are obviously not of-the-normal, and you've come into my town. I need to know that you're of-the-good."

"We are," Max said. "We just want two things."

"And what's that," Xander said, "Blood and guts?"

"Hey, back off!" Michael said.

"Xander, leave them alone," the redhead said.

"But Will," Xander started, but stopped as Willow held up a hand for him to stop.

"No, Xander. Be nice. Yes, you _have_ to," she added as he started to pout. "Resolve face," she said, giving him the look she mentioned.

Xander stopped.

"We want to help people," Liz said. "We have... abilities." She was obviously glossing over something major. "And we want to help people with them, but we can't afford to draw much attention to ourselves. There are... people... who want to find us and we'd much rather they didn't."

"Yeah," Kyle said, "We don't want the FBI to catch up to us and dissect us to see how we tick."

"FBI?" Xander asked, "the Fu.."

"XANDER! Dawn." Buffy said.

"..ools Butting In?" Xander finished. Dawn rolled her eyes.

Maria and Isabel snickered.

"That's about the size of it," Michael said.

Dawn looked around. "So... what are you guys? Half-demons? You said you weren't witches."

"We're not from around here."

"OOoh!" Dawn said, "From another dimension?"

"They're aliens. From another planet," Kyle said, afraid of this becoming another long, drawn-out discussion with people pointing toward the sky.

"We prefer the term 'Not of this Earth'," Maria said.

Max, Michael, and Isabel looked at her.

"What?" She asked. "I'm one of you now, remember?"

"We're actually human-alien hybrids," Max said.

The Scoobies all just sat there with their mouths open. "I thought we'd seen everything at this point," Xander said. "Just goes to show you there are more things in heaven and earth than Giles bothered to give us books about."

Dawn looked at Xander with wide eyes. "Xander, that was almost a Shakespeare reference..."

He just nodded. "Yeah, all those English classes I slept through, turns out some of it seeped into my brain anyway. And I tried so hard..."

"Can we please stay on topic, here people?" Michael asked. "You people are obviously not normal either. So if you don't know about aliens, then please, tell us: who are you people?"

"I'm Buffy, this is my sister Dawn, that's Xander, and this is Willow."

"I didn't ask your names," Michael said, putting up a hand toward them threateningly. "Now answer the question."

Maria grabbed his arm and took his hand in hers. "Down, space-boy."

"Alright," Xander said. "Imagine what I'm about to say in a stuffy British accent." He cleared his throat. "Unto Each Generation a slayer is born. One girl in all the world She alone will stand against the vampires the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer." He dropped the Brit impression. "She is Buffy."

"Slayer. Good band," Michael said.

"Not helping," Isabel glared.

"So, you're all from like a whole other planet?" Dawn asked.

Liz spoke up. "Well, Maria, Kyle and I, we're from Roswell."

"I never heard of the planet Roswell," Buffy said.

"No," Kyle butted in, "Roswell, NEW MEXICO, USA, planet Earth."

"So you're aliens who were born on Earth?" Xander said. "Sweet merciful Zeus! I guess given our lives it should stop surprising me just what you can find living on earth. After all, are demons born in the USA every day...and Mexicans."

"No, we started out human. The whole 'becoming an alien' thing, it's kinda recent." Maria explained.

"Max, Michael and I, actually ARE aliens who were 'born' on earth... only we'd all had previous lives." Isabel explained.

"And we were born at the age of six," Michael said.

Willow's eyes got wide and Buffy did a double-take.

"There were pods," Max explained, causing them both to 'aah' and nod as if they understood. Willow probably did..

"Yeah, see, but the thing is, we're kind of trying to avoid being noticed by the FBI - you know, avoiding the whole aforementioned interrogation and subsequent dissection thing." Kyle said.

'That's why we came here," Michael said. "We heard a rumor that the authorities here are completely oblivious."

"And how," Xander said. "Yep, if you want a town where the powers-that-be simply would prefer to ignore the weird and unexplainable, welcome to Sunnydale." Xander thought for a second about what he said. "But not the big, all-powerful Powers-That-Be. Just the local schmucks. It's a capitalization thing."

"As fascinating as all this confusion is," Dawn started, but she was abruptly cut off by Max.

"We want to help."

"What?" Buffy was slowly getting sick of being shocked and decided to just be a blonde.

"Well, if nobody's likely to notice that we're different here, then we'll be safe for now. We're aliens... we've got powers, and we'd like to use them to help people. It sounds like what you guys do, protecting people, saving the world here, it's important." Max sounded determined. Liz took his hand and gave the Scoobies a shy smile. Maria shrugged. Michael looked nonplussed, but the rest of the Roswell gang knew he would go wherever Maria went, and Isabel would go along with Max... and Kyle along with Isabel.

It looked like life on the Hellmouth had just gotten a little more interesting.


	3. What You Don't Know Can Hurt Me

* * *

Chapter 3 - What You Don't Know Can Hurt Me

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Dawn then asked the obvious question the rest of the Scoobies had been dying to ask.

"So, like, what kinds of cool alien powers have you guys got?"

"Well, we all have different gifts... but we also have a few common threads," Max explained. "We can make.. connections... with people. We can also alter simple molecular structures, and we're all telekinetic. I can also heal people of pretty much anything except complete death. And make an inertial barrier. Isabel is telepathic, she can walk in peoples' minds, their dreams. Michael can also shape shift, in a limited way... he can change parts of his body, like his fingerprints. Most of his talents are more... combat oriented. That's it for the three of us. The others..."

Liz picked up the explanation, "Individually, it takes time for a human's powers to develop. I was the first one changed, so I'm the strongest among us. I share the same baseline powers - telekinesis, touch telepathy, molecular alteration... but I'm also clairvoyant. I can see things, sometimes the present, sometimes the near future. Kyle has a kind of machine empathy - he can instinctively understand and control machines. Maria was just changed recently... we don't know what her powers will be but it seems to take a couple years for them to develop."

"My special power's being able to put up with space-boy," Maria said. Willow glanced over at Xander and nodded sympathetically.

"So what about you guys," Michael said. "You're different from normal people, right? I mean, I saw you kill six vampires in about ten seconds," he nodded at Buffy.

"Well, I'm the Slayer. I'm super-strong, and super-fast... I have super night-vision and good hearing and my Slaydar - it's a sort of badness-detector-sense. Or maybe a weirdness-detector-sense. You guys feel different, and you're not bad. Oh, and I have super-agility and an instinctual knowledge of combat, and can master almost any weapon instantly."

"What about you, Dawn?" Liz asked, intrigued.

"Me? I-I'm not special. Well, I speak about eleven languages including French, Latin, Italian, Greek, Sumerian, Macedonian, Magyar, Russian, ancient Egyptian, Sanskrit, Hebrew.."

"Whoa," Kyle said.

"A-an I'm sort-of apprenticing under Willow to be a witch."

"A witch?" Isabel asked. Max and Liz smirked at each other, having already had this conversation. They'd left that part out of their report to the others because, well, they didn't want to miss this.

Dawn nodded. Willow piped up. "Magics are real. We practice Wicca - the art of using the natural lines of energy made by the earth to produce unnatural effects."

"So witches are really just psychics?" Kyle said, hoping for this rational explanation to be true.

"Well, no," Willow said. "A psychic's power comes from himself. He's limited by the energy produced by his body, by his brain, and the ability of the brain to manipulate that energy. A witch uses magic, which comes from the earth. It's a diametrically opposed viewpoint. In order to use psychic ability, you have to focus, to force your will upon the world. In order to use Magic, you have to give yourself over to the universe, and ask, request the world to adopt your point of view..."

"As fascinating as the mechanics of magic are... well, they're not." Michael interrupted. Turning toward Xander, he asked, "And what about you?"

Xander sighed, and Buffy interjected. "He keeps us sane and happy. And fed."

Xander shook his head. "Great. Promoted from Zeppo to Alice from the Brady Bunch."

Willow hugged him. "Hey, Alice was important... she was in every episode!"

Buffy nodded. "Well, I think we should split up into groups for patrol tonight and show the newbies around the undead circuit."

Xander nodded. "I'll go with Isabel," he said immediately.

Isabel smiled, and Kyle immediately followed, "And I'll go with them."

Max nodded. "I'll go with Buffy and Liz."

Willow piped up, "I guess I'll take Michael and Maria."

Dawn's eyes flashed. "This is so cool... we've never had TEAMS before. We've got to get some cool spy radios or something to keep in contact. I-I could be like, home base."

Max smiled. "You know, that's not a bad idea..."

* * *

INTERLUDE: Cheyenne Mountain, 0700am

* * *

"Thank you all for getting here on time," General Hammond said as Daniel came in the door late, cup of coffee in hand and carrying a donut in his mouth. The Texan general rolled his eyes. Jack raised an eyebrow and said nothing. The others seated in the conference room - the rest of SG-1, Major Davis, and Jack hadn't been surprised to see Special Agent Malcolm Barrett invited,

"Since the fiasco in Roswell last year, we've been tracking the rogue elements of the NID that seem to want to step on our toes."

"You mean who seem to want to kick us in the b.."

"Exactly, Colonel," Hammond cut him off with a roll of his eyes, "We've found the largest cell remaining to them, we've tracked them south from Seattle. They're following something, and they seem really concerned about it. So not only are we dealing with rogue NID, but also the possibility of a foothold situation. If they have evidence of an alien threat on Earth, it's under OUR jurisdiction, and we need to deal with that, as well as with them. I'm sending SG-1 to California to investigate them. If you find them, we'll have SG-7 and SG-15 on standby to join you for backup."

"General," Sam asked, "What exactly are we expecting them to be trailing?"

"That's just it, Major... we don't know. The so-called 'Special Unit' of the FBI was comprised entirely of NID plants. They didn't really report to anybody that we can find and even the President can't tell me anything about them because he doesn't know. Apparently, the unit evolved from Majestic-12, a group that started by secret executive order of President Truman as a result of the Roswell Crash in 1947. Originally it was under Air-Force control, led by General Hoyt Vandenberg and Secretary of Defense James Forrestal. In 1959, MJ-12 was moved under the jurisdiction of the FBI, and a Special Unit was formed to investigate a series of suspected alien-related murders."

Jack actually looked interested. Daniel looked like he was hearing nothing new. Considering his theories about and interest in aliens and such before he joined the SGC, it wasn't surprising that he knew the history. To Barrett, who knew all of this already, it was just kind of boring.

"Hold on, General... can we just skip past the boring back story and get to the relevant portion of our cautionary tale?"

"Alright, Barrett, if that's how you want it," Hammond continued. "About seven years ago after learning about the Stargate, the rogue elements of the NID thought that it would be a good idea to get agents into the FBI's special unit, strengthening their positions with the aliens and giving them leverage with the President to allow them to take over the SGC. They began inserting their own men. As far as we know, all that's left of the Special Unit are NID operatives using the Unit's broad mandate to do pretty much whatever they want. And as we know, what they ultimately want is control of the Stargate."

"And they think that finding these aliens will do that?" Sam didn't really see how it could help. Barrett stepped up.

"Well, just think for a minute. These aliens may have technology similar to the Goa'uld. Maybe even as good as the Asgard's. Maybe even better. They're an unknown quantity. But think what the unscrupulous could do with that. These aliens are a completely unknown quantity to us." SG-1 could tell that Barrett knew something and that he wasn't telling. While the SGC considered him to be on 'their side', as an NID agent he wasn't exactly a free-information kind of guy.

"Is it possible that these aliens are themselves Goa'uld, Agent Barrett?" Teal'c asked. He looked... irate. As he always did when thinking about snakes.

Barrett looked like he didn't want to say anything when Hammond piped up. "Tell us what you know, Agent Barrett. That's an order, and I will call the President and have him repeat it to you if I have to."

"No," Barrett said. "They're not Goa'uld. Though, they do look human. My guys smuggled a few medical tests from when the Special Unit had one in custody a few years ago. Reports confirmed that their entire physical structure was human, but that they're different on a strictly cellular level. He didn't have anything technologically advanced on him, but his physiology was such that he had heightened natural abilities. An MRI showed activity in over 87 of his brain."

Sam was astonished. "A human brain 87 active? That's impossible. When Jack's brain went hyperactive when the Ancients' library downloaded it nearly killed him..."

Barrett shook his head. "Not human, Major. Remember that. Not human."

"And is there anything else you're not telling us, Malcolm?" Sam piped up again, having had a few minutes to think through it all.

"Well, there's the possibility that some of these rogue NID agents are pre-cleansing Committee leftovers... and they might be part of the Trust, possibly even Goa'uld themselves. We've had no contact and nobody's been able to get close enough to confirm and get out again alive to report."

"That explains a lot," Jack said. Everybody looked at him. "What? You expected anything different? Lately, you can't swing a dead cat on this planet without hitting some secret Goa'uld plot to take over the world. So, I guess it's off to sunny California."

* * *

The newly expanded and merged Scooby gang was having a blast. The new royal four were actually enjoying being able to use the destructive sides of their abilities in a positive way. Michael, who had a lot of what Dawn understatedly called 'resentment issues', became much easier to live with after a night of dusting vamps. Isabel and Xander were starting to get close, as well. Kyle was starting to hit it off with Buffy too, and everything was going swimmingly. It was a week into the new arrangement, when all the rules changed.

* * *

This is the end of the third chapter. I've been writing up a storm, and at the rate I'm going I'll be at Chapter Ten before too long. I'll be posting a chapter a week, or maybe two chapters a week, or even more, if I get some good reviews and feedback. I'm also looking for a couple of regular Beta readers, so anybody who wants the job, let me know.

Thanks, guys!

* * *


	4. Conversations With Dead People Part 1

* * *

Chapter 4 - Conversations with Dead People - Pt 1

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Franco entered the cone of light in the dark room. "Sir, we have a gas station with an unauthorized credit card usage in Los Angeles. It's on a line with the others we've followed south from Seattle. We're checking on possible destinations now."

Agent Barnes looked up. "Thank you, Franco. Alert the others. We are mobile in fifteen."

Franco nodded. "Yes, sir."

A moment later, Barnes was quite alone. "We will find these... creatures soon. And when we do..." He smiled at the thought of his imminent empowerment, and his eyes for just a moment flashed a brilliant white. "They will make _excellent_ hosts..."

* * *

Buffy woke up in a cold sweat. Isabel did as well, a moment later. At first, Buffy had been unwilling to be comfortable around Isabel. She was jealous of the alien girl. She was beautiful, powerful, but mostly, she was _tall_. And the idea of her flitting in and out of peoples' dreams for fun was more than a bit creepy. But lately, Buffy had been having powerful, and continuously worse Slayer dreams.. and after a few days, was thankful for the offer of company. Otherwise, Buffy would have been completely alone against the hordes of grotesque monsters that nightly plagued her.

Now, Isabel had joined her each night, suffering the atrocities alongside her, fighting the fight. Michael still thought that Slaying was fun... but Isabel had learned differently very quickly from Buffy's dreams that the bad times were far worse than he thought. Liz, too, had caught flashes of the near future. She had become somewhat withdrawn, not letting anybody touch her except Maria and Max, to avoid the horrible visions.

The dreams were powerfully intense, but all jumbled. The Scoobies knew something horrible was about to happen, They just had no idea what.

* * *

"I can't believe that on a Friday night, I'm in a library instead of out having a good time." Maria sounded very annoyed. Michael was off on another one of his joyful patrols, Max and Liz were off,.. _enjoying each others' company_, and she was currently sharing the table at the UC Sunnydale library with Willow, with books piled all around. She liked the redhead, but she was currently frustrated with their task. "We don't even know what we're looking for! The prophecy was annoyingly vague."

"I know!" Willow complained. "It's always like that. Why can't a prophecy ever say, 'at 5:32pm on December 17th, the year of our lord two-thousand and four, John Q Smith who lives at 123 Lincoln Avenue, Sunnydale California, will attempt to obtain the Ring of Theseus from the crypt of Harriman Lane, a nineteenth century businessman who is buried in Eagleton cematery?' Why's it always like 'the Nameless One shall arise, and there shall be terrible searching, and he shall Find, and all will be destroyed'... 'I'm sorry, Mr. Seer, but that's too specific. Somebody might find a way to make it helpful. Could you be a little more vague?'"

Maria closed the book she was looking through. "Nothing in here." Looking over at the pile she had yet to go through, she decided to take a bathroom break. "I don't think my bladder's gonna last through another one of these books," she commented, standing up and running off in search of the bathrooms.

Willow buried herself comfortably in her stack of books. It seemed suddenly very quiet without Maria talking to her.

"So this is the UC Sunnydale library, huh? It's so big! Hey."

Willow looked up to see a sad looking blonde girl who looked familiar.

"I know you! I mean, I saw your picture." Willow was clearly surprised to realise who it was.

"Yeah," Cassie Newton said, "I know, it's kinda weird 'cause we never really met."

"...Or kinda weird 'cause you're really dead."

"Yeah, well..." Cassie gave a kind of half-shrug and laughed a little.

"Did I fall asleep?" Willow asked.

Cassie looked a little surprised at the question. "No! No, I'm here. I mean, not.. not _here_ here. It's kinda complicated. Kind of ironic, too. I wrote all that intense poetry about the end, and here I am again. Chatting you up."

Willow nodded nervously. "Yeah. Ironic."

Cassie sighed. "I knew this would completely freak you out!" Cassie moved to an empty chair and sat. "It's just, she asked that I come talk to you. It's important," she explained.

"She?"

"Don't worry," Cassie interrupted, seeing Willow getting upset. "I'm not going to hurt you or anything."

"Who asked you? What are you talking about?"

"She says she still sings."

Willow looked totally perplexed. "What?"

"Remember that time on the bridge when you sang to each other? Well, she says even though you can't hear it, she still sings to you."

"Tara?" Willow said, half question, half prayer.

* * *

Michael and Buffy were having a good time. They'd just found a new nest of vamps, and were really enjoying what seemed like light work nowadays. Buffy staked two very stupid vamps who had come up on either side of her and actually _posed_. She wondered what kind of losers they'd been before they were turned. Probably gaming geeks. If they'd lived longer they probably would have made some sort of amazingly original banter, like...

"Now's your time to die, Slayer!" another vamp shouted.

"I'd love to be wrong, just once," Buffy sighed, engaging him in the fight.

Michael was going through vampires in what seemed effortless ease, but in fact using his powers in combat this much made him extremely tired. He'd already set fire to about five, blown up about six more, and actually beheaded one accidentally when he tossed him away. It was a big nest though, and of the thirty or so vampires that had begun, the nine or ten that were left were enough to be a threat to him as he got more and more tired. He didn't think he could so much as light a spark anymore.

Buffy saw Michael getting winded, and jumped in front of him to give him a chance to catch his breath and marshal some strength. "I can hold off these guys," Buffy said. "They're minions. I am a bit worried about that one," Buffy said, pointing to a vampire in the corner leaning against a wall. He was almost as short as she was, and he looked Asian. She figured him for the leader, since he hadn't lifted a finger. "We've got to finish this up before that guy decides to get involved," she said. "When he does, I just KNOW it's going to be bad for us."

Michael nodded, and having caught his breath, lunged at one of the two vamps directly in front of Buffy while she went for the other. Michael missed the heart with his stake as the vamp attempted to dodge on reflex. Buffy, now free, stuck her stake in his back and pierced his heart, withdrawing quickly.

Six left. she divided them up, running in among the center of them. They circled her. Michael cam up behind one while it was lunging at Buffy, and staked it in the back as it stood from the lunge.

"That works pretty good," Michael said. He tried it again, and lo and behold, same result. The vamp went to dust, oblivious of what had been done to his comrade a moment before. At this point, the others wised up and turned on Michael. "Oh, shit."

"Big mistake," Buffy said as the area exploded into one big cloud of dust. Slayer speed was quite impressive. "Boy, slaying vamps is really easy when they're not even trying to fight back."

Michael sighed. "Thanks." He hated being indebted to anybody. Especially a girl.

"Don't mention it," Buffy replied. "First rule of slaying: Don't Die."

It was at this inopportune moment that the small vampire, previously forgotten, had decided to make his move. Michael barely caught a flash of his dark blue jacket before throwing out his hand and focusing his will on pushing the vamp away from Buffy's back. Weak as Michael was, he was barely bale to manage to make the vamp move back two steps. "Buffy! Behind you!"

Buffy turned around in time to see the vampire lieutenant. Reflex brought her hand up to her chest, stake pointing out, as he landed on top of her, knocking her to the ground. A moment later a weight was lifted off her chest as he exploded into dust. She stood up and brushed herself off.

"Not that impressive after all," Michael said.

* * *

"Tara, Is it you?"

"She's sorry she couldn't come herself," Cassie said.

"Why didn't she? I don't understand... I mean, if you can manifest yourself,"

"She just can't," Cassie cut her off.

"I don't understand?" Willow sounded both hurt and confused.

"Because of what you did."

"What?"

"You killed people. You can't see her. That's just how it is," Cassie explained. "I'm sorry."

"But she's talking to you? A-and she can hear me?" Willow broke down into tears and looks up, searching for some sign of Tara's ghostly presence. "Tara? Tara, I miss you. I miss you so much!" She turned to Cassie. "Can she hear me? What's happening? Did she say anything? Did she go away?"

"She's crying," came the reply.

"No!" Willow wailed. "No, don't cry! Don't cry, sweetie; talk to me!"

"She misses you too," Cassie whispered. "She wishes she could touch you.

"Me too! Oh, me too! Oh God, Tara... It hurts so much!" Willow sunk further into her despair as she reminisced. "Every day... it's like a giant hole, and it's not getting any better."

"It will," Cassie predicted. "It can."

"How? You're gone!"

"But you're not. You're strong... like an Amazon, remember?"

"I do," Willow said in a hushed tone, realizing it almost for the first time. "I remember."

* * *

As she came out of the bathroom into the empty hallway, Maria was scared out of her wits by what she saw as she opened the door.

"Surprise!" said a lanky boy with short, dark hair.

"Holy shit! Y-you can't be here! You're dead! Is that my alien power, seeing dead people? Because if so, I want to give it back..." she began to weep, out of sorrow as much as out of fear, and frustration.

"It's me, Maria. I was given this chance to come back. I missed you."

"Oh, Alex... everybody blames themselves for your death, that if they'd only done something differently..."

"Maria! It was Tess's fault. Nobody else's. It sucked and it was horrendously painful, but it was just her. I know none of you would have let her do that, and none of you could have known it was happening. And I've moved on to my eternal reward, so I've kind of gotten over it. Let me tell you, the babes in heaven are top-notch... and they did a bass player."

Maria laughed through her tears. "We've all missed you so much,"

Alex smiled. "I've missed you all, too. But where I am now... well, I can't say too much about it. But Maria, I'm happy there. It's a good place. They have music, Maria. I can't describe it. It's like nothing you've ever heard, you experience it with all your senses at once."

"It sounds amazing."

"But as much as I wish it was, Maria... this isn't a pleasure trip. I've been sent here, with a message.

"A message?"

"Yeah. Can you imagine that? Me, Alex Whitman, on a mission from God. Sadly, It's not putting the band back together..."

* * *

Max held Liz close. It was always such an intense experience, when they made love. Bodies and minds entwined, they had writhed together in pleasure for the last two hours, sharing one another's souls. For some reason, Liz was always incredibly thirsty afterwards, but it was always a long time before either of them could bring themselves to separate so that she could get up to get a drink. She always meant to plan ahead and put a glass of water by the bedside. Plans were Liz's thing. But somehow, when Max started touching her, well, plans had a way of being completely forgotten.

They were both lost in their thought when a beautiful blonde girl bounced into the room. "Oops. I see you two are... indisposed. Maybe this isn't a good time. I should go."

Max and Liz both looked up at the intruder.

"Tess?" Liz asked.

"You can't be here," Max added. "You're dead... the explosion at the air base."

"Yes," Tess agreed. "I'm not corporeal. When we die, our consciousness lives on, Max."

"If you're just a consciousness, how can we see you?" Liz was slightly worried.

"What you see is a projection of me."

"A projection. Like, you're mind-warping us to see you?"

"Something like that."

"Why did you wait so long?" Max asked. Liz looked at him. He ignored it, and continued. "If you could have done this at any time, why now?"

"I was worried that you wouldn't be able to handle talking to me... and I chose now because I felt how calm and relaxed you both were." Tess bit her lip nervously. "I though you might be in a receptive state of mind. I didn't realize that you were..." she trailed off.

"What you did for us... in the end? It was very noble," Liz said. Max looked surprised. Tess smiled. She and Liz had made their peace already.

"I did it for my baby."

* * *

Interlude: Cheyenne Mountain: 20:00 hours

* * *

"Are we ready to go, Teal'c?"

"We are missing DanielJackson, Colonel O'Neill."

"So we are. Sam, would you run down to Daniel's office and see what's taking him so long? We're supposed to be leaving now."

"Yes, sir." Sam picked up her pack and placed it inside the Tel'tak that stood in front of them. It would be the fastest way to California. Then she headed off briskly in search of the absentminded archaeologist.

Jack watched her go, and not for the first time wished he wasn't her superior officer. Teal'c noticed his look and raised an eyebrow.

"I believe you should take a photograph, Colonel O'Neill. It will last longer."

Jack glared at Teal'c. "We let you watch too much television."

Teal'c just continued to look superior and stoic, although his mouth may have betrayed a slight hint of a smile.

* * *

Daniel was taking one last look through his books and papers to see if anything might be useful. He noticed the light in the room change, and looked behind him to see a matronly woman, glowing gently.

"Oma?" Daniel asked, more than a little surprised to be seeing her.

"Daniel, we need to talk," Oma said.


	5. Conversations With Dead People Part 2

* * *

Chapter 4 - Conversations with Dead People - Part 2

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Daniel looked up at Oma Desala. "What's wrong Oma? I know you wouldn't be here if it weren't important. Like, fate of the universe important."

Oma smiled her gentle Mona Lisa smile at Daniel. "There is little time, Daniel. There is a great darkness spreading over your world. And if it is not stopped here, it will consume all of existence. We ascended beings cannot interfere, but neither can we allow ourselves to be destroyed. So I have been allowed to bring you some information."

"Information is always useful," Daniel said. "Even if we haven't found its applications yet."

Oma nodded. "You know my name, Daniel. When you first heard it, you translated it as 'Mother Earth'."

"I remember."

"And you also know that my work is to reveal the path to ascension to worthy souls."

"Yes, of course."

"Well then you may or may not realize it, but there are many people on earth, on this path. Learning to be at peace, at one with the universe."

"I thought it was just me you were dealing with on Earth," he said.

She smiled at that. "There are only two people on Earth who have talked to me directly. You are one. The other is... she's almost a daughter to me."

"How does it help me to know that? Is she in danger?"

Oma shook her head. "She isn't in danger. She is in the _middle_ of danger. And in some cases, she could _be_ the danger."

"I don't understand... Oma, is this another Anubis? Somebody partially ascended?"

"You could say that, Daniel. She's made a giant leap towards ascension, but in a different state from Anubis."

"A different state?"

"She's become what I once was... an avatar... Mother Earth."

Daniel's eyes opened wide. "Mother Earth? How ancient is this person?"

"In your terms, she's 23 years old."

Daniel raised an eyebrow in a nearly Teal'c like fashion. "Mother Earth... at 23?"

Oma sighed. "Not quite yet. But, she must become. The other option is too terrible to imagine. You must meet her, and speak with her."

"Why can't you?"

"I am forbidden to - she is off-limits to me, the others believe I have done too much for her, and she must do the rest herself."

Oma began to fade out. "Wait!" cried Daniel. "Where do I find this girl?"

Oma smiled, and as she disappeared, she said, "She will find you soon enough..."

* * *

Max and Liz looked at Tess, who stared back. "So where is he? I want to see little Zan."

"Well, I..." Max was floundering. How did he explain this properly? "I was, am, being hunted. I didn't want my son to have to live a life on the run, and"

"_Where_ is my son, Max? _Show_ me my _son_!"

"I put him up for adoption, with a nice family. He's human, it isn't fair to make him deal with this alien stuff without having a choice of his own. Tess, we've been on the run, We've been on the run from the government for more than nine months. I don't want Zan to live like that."

"I preferred to die rather than see my baby taken away from me." The alien girl looked furious. "I gave my life so that he would be safe with you! And how do you repay me? You _gave him away_! How... horrible it must be to know that you doomed an innocent child to never learn who his parents really are? You _could_ have taken care of him, Max. You _should_ be taking care of him."

"Tess, I..."

"I don't want to hear your _excuses_, Max. If you and Liz can't take care of our own son, then you're not fit to be king!"

* * *

Dawn, Xander and Isabel were sitting in the living room, playing Monopoly. Dawn was clearly winning, as marked by her several pieces of real-estate with hotels. Isabel had a few houses, and Xander had precious little of anything left.

Xander suspected he had been getting shafted... Dawn's cute pout and Isabel's winning smile caused him to be the sucker in almost every deal made in the game thus far. He had a measly few hundred dollars left, and two railroads which nobody thus far had landed on.

He was about to call it quits and declare Dawn the winner when a noise from elsewhere in the house caught all of their attention. Xander looked up at Dawn and Isabel. Dawn paid it little attention. Isabel looked around to pinpoint the noise, but it was quiet again.

Xander took the initiative. "Maybe we better check that out. Unidentified bumping around the casa-de-slayer is _never_ a good thing. Dawn, you stay here while I go check it out."

Isabel glanced at Dawn, then at Xander. "I'll come with you."

Dawn, left out of the action once again, just sighed and turned on the TV as the others left the room. Some old horror movie was playing. She settled in to watch it, when she heard the knocking again. Muting the TV, she listens for the noise. She hears a thump sound, and then lets out a little shriek of startlement, as the front door to her house is thrown wide open and a strong wind enters the house. Xander and Isabel come running back in, and help Dawn to close the door again.

Dawn sighed in relief as the three of them got the door shut. "Whew, that was..."

She was interrupted by the TV suddenly becoming un-muted, at full volume. Xander picked up the remote, and hit the mute button.

Predictably, nothing happened. He then tried the power button. "No dice," he said. "Just unplug it, Dawn." Dawn reached around behind the tv and yanked the cord out of the wall. The TV still blares on loudly.

"Um, Xander?" Dawn sounded really nervous. She held up the end of the cord for them to see. "That's not normal."

* * *

SG-1's cloaked tel'tak arrived in California only ten minutes after they left Colorado. They couldn't exactly fly at superluminal speeds in the atmosphere, but the craft was very speedy nonetheless. They had set down in a town called Sunnydale, on a forgotten edge of a wood located in a graveyard the sign proclaimed 'Shady Rest'. That decision was made by the colonel on recommendation from Sam after the tel'tak's sensors picked up an unknown energy source located near the high school. They thought that 'previously unknown energy source' matched too well with 'previously unknown aliens' not to investigate it. It was reasoned that either this was where the aliens were, or was likely to be where they were coming.

They decided to go out in civilian clothes, with sidearms only. They didn't want the locals to think that the military was invading, they just wanted to scout around. The cavalry would come later, if necessary, and loaded for bear.

As soon as they stepped out of the safety of the tel'tak and its cloaking field, Teal'c noticed something odd.

"Colonel O'Neill, I feel... strange."

"Strange how, Teal'c?"

"I am unable to define it exactly, O'Neill, but I have a definite sense of something... _wrong_ here. As though a malevolent presence was watching me from just behind my back."

"So, not the funny kind of strange, the 'it's quiet.. almost too quiet' kinda strange."

"Well, Jack, what do you think we should do?" Daniel was a little afraid, but he tried not to show it.

"We continue with the mission. But just to be on the safe side, keep a lookout. I don't want to meet whatever can give Teal'c the creeps."

Sam looked down at her GPS unit. "According to the scan, the high school - and the energy source - should be over that way."

Jack nodded, and started walking.

* * *

Buffy and Michael were happy to be done with the night's patrol, and after that huge nest they'd found, had a real sense of accomplishment. Now, they had other priorities. Willow might have found something in the library, and Michael missed Maria. They took the shortcut back through Shady Rest cemetery, The two of them were talking, about Slaying mostly since Michael wasn't much with the joking around. They'd set a pretty brisk pace to get back, and were just coming out of the woods. Buffy instantly jumped to fully alert and took a fighting stance when Michael suddenly fell over with a thumping sound.

Seeing nothing, Buffy got really suspicious.

"What the hell..." Michael said, rubbing his jaw. "That hurt!"

"I don't see anything. What happened?

"Something hit me in the jaw..." He started to stand up when he banged his head. "_Ow_... OK, have I just walked into an old Three Stooges rerun or something?"

He reached out and felt ahead of him. Sure enough, there was something solid, and completely invisible, right in front of him. Buffy noticed and felt around for it too. "What is it?" she asked.

"Don't know."

"As I said once before, if it's not normal, it doesn't usually lead to hugs and puppies."

"Maria will be so disappointed. She loves puppies."

"Man, you have got Maria on the brain tonight!"

"Yeah, I was kind of mean to her yesterday, and I haven't had a chance to apologize yet."

"I wouldn't worry about it, Michael. You may be pigheaded and occasionally mean, but she knows that over all, you're one of the good guys."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Michael said, dripping with sarcasm.

"No, just an observation."

"I didn't know you had any powers of observation."

She grinned. "It's part of the girl package. We have 100 percent clarity of vision when looking at _other people's_ relationships."

"I think you better be careful giving away the girly secrets or they might throw you out of the club."

"No, Michael. Nothing happens to me. But if you learn too much, they might have to make you into a girl."

"You are never allowed to talk to me about girl stuff again."

Buffy flashed him a smirk. "As you wish. So, any bright ideas about with this... invisi-thingy is?"

"It's some kind of metal. It feels familiar. I'm too tired to do much of anything special to find out more, though. Maybe we can bring Liz back here tomorrow."

"And what if it's gone by then?"

"Maybe we should go get her now."

"What about Maria?"

"She'll understand. She's good like that."

"OK, then. It's your ass. You stay here and make sure it doesn't go anywhere, I'll run for the motel."

* * *

The house was filled with noise. The TV was blaring, and nothing was stopping it. The radio had started, and was playing some sort of annoying Mexican music.

Xander fished around for an axe, and smashed the radio, while Isabel did the same to the TV, which blinked out in a shower of sparks. The music didn't go away, however. They heard it, coming from the Kitchen. The three of them headed inside, and saw the offending radio. The microwave suddenly came on, and Xander threw the axe at it.

"Xander!" Dawn cried, and shrieked as the microwave exploded. Dawn backed away, but her bare feet were cut on the resulting shards of glass that the explosion had scattered all over the floor. Dawn screamed in pain, and Xander was about to come and get her, when a voice tuned in to drown out the music on the as-yet-unsmashed radio.

"Dawn?"

Dawn and Xander's eyes went wide, and Dawn forgot all about her bleeding feet. "Mom?"

* * *

Jonathan and Andrew were prowling around the High School. They were looking for something, and had decided to split up and find it.

"OK, uh, um, uh... you go check down that hallway, and I'll go over there," Jonathan said.

Andrew nodded. "Check communications?"

They simultaneously reached into their pockets and fished out small walkie-talkies. They turned them on with a beep.

Jonathan held his radio up to his mouth. "Check, check."

Andrew did the same, "Check, check."

"Check."

"Check, check."

"Check, check."

"Check, check, check."

"Check."

They nodded to one another and then walked their separate ways. They were only a few steps down the hall when Andrew's radio came alive.

"Echo 1 to Echo 2," came Jonathan's voice.

"This is Echo 1," Andrew replied. "Go ahead."

"Do you really think they'll let us join their gang?"

Andrew shrugged. Jonathan, seeing his reaction, walked on down his hallway.

From behind some lockers next to Andrew, a figure stepped out. "Nice job," he said.

"There you are! I'm scared out of my frickin' gourd here!" Andrew said.

Warren chuckled. It sounded evil. A weak, watery-thin, geeky sort of evil. "Take it easy. Take it easy."

"Do you have any idea how hard it's been to act this cool?"

"Calm down," Warren chided. "You're doing great. All specs are within parameters."

"You keep leaving me!" Andrew whined. "I hate it when you leave me! One time you died, and I ended up a Mexican."

"We've been over this," Warren sighed. "That death thing was all part of the master plan! Come on, 'If you strike me down,...'"

Andrew adopted his best Obi-wan voice. "'... I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.' Of course," he laughed. His eyes brightened as a thought came to him. "Hey, do you think Willow could kill me too?"

"Hey, don't worry! If short round pulls off his end of the bargain, we'll both become gods," Warren promised.

Andrew turned to look down the hall toward where Jonathan went. He went back into his Obi-wan voice. "That boy is our last hope."

"No," said Warren, "There is another,"

Andrew, seeming surprised, did a double-take and looked at Warren. "Wait, really? Who's our last hope?"

Warren shook his head. "Nah, I was just going with it. It was a thing. He's our last hope."

* * *

Willow looked at Cassie, drying the tears from her eyes. "I-I don't know where to start. Um, after Warren shot you - you know all about that, what happened?" she asked. "It was horrible. _I_ was horrible. I... I lost myself, the regular me."

Cassie gave her a gentle, comforting smile. "Well, you were grieving."

Willow waved off her attempt to be comforting. She didn't feel she deserved comfort, not about this. "A lot of people grieve. They don't make with the flaying. I hurt so many people!"

"It was the power."

"I am the power! It's in me. Did I mention the random destruction of property? The Magic Box is not so much a box now..."

"The power is bigger than you are." Cassie said.

"I know, but..."

"Things are more clear where Tara is, where we are. We can see your path, and you have to stop. You can't use magic again." Cassie pleaded. "Not ever."

"Black magic, of course. But Giles says it isn't as simple as-as quitting it all cold-turkey."

"It's too dangerous! You can't take the chance that you'll lose control..."

"I-I don't want to," cried Willow. "I-I can't. I never want to cause that kind of pain."

"Of course you don't."

"So, I won't. I'm gonna be OK."

"She says..."

Willow, reminded again that she was talking to Tara, was eager to hear what she wanted to say. "What?"

"She says you're not gonna be OK. You're gonna kill everybody."

Willow just stared at Cassie, completely flabbergasted.

* * *

After some searching, Andrew and Jonathan found their way into the room where the hellmouth was kept. Andrew had discussed with Jonathan how the seal was connected to the demon Danthazar, who wanted to end the world. Having finally found it, they began to dig in the room's dirt floor to uncover the seal. They'd been digging for some time, when they found it, and hastily began to remove the dirt from all around it.

"We've almost got this thing uncovered." Jonathan said, excited.

"Yep." Andrew replied noncommittally.

"I hope Buffy'll know how to destroy it." Jonathan suddenly stopped digging and smiled. "36-19-27! That's it! That was my locker combination." Re reminisced as he resumed his digging. "God, it's been bugging me all night."

"Dude, we spent the last few years trying to forget about high school," Andrew reminded him. "Why are you trying so hard to remember it?"

"I don't know. I guess I miss it. Don't you?"

Andrew made a sarcastic noise. "Yeah, I really miss it."

Jonathan put his shovel down and turned to Andrew. "No, I'm serious. I really miss it. Time goes by, and everything drops away." This statement caused Andrew to stop digging as he continued. "All the cruelty, all the pain, all that humiliation. It all washes away."

Andrew looked over Jonathan's shoulder and saw Warren there, standing behind him.

"I miss my friends." Jonathan continued, "I miss my enemies. I miss the people I talked to every day. I miss the people who never knew I existed. I miss 'em all. I want to talk to them, you know. I want to find out how they're doing. I want to know what's going on in their lives."

Andrew looked angry. "You know what? They don't wanna talk to you - all those people you just mentioned. Not one of them is sitting around going, 'I wonder what Jonathan's up to right now.' Not one of them cares about you."

"Well, I still care about them. That's why I'm here."

Jonathan picked up his shovel and went back to the digging. Andrew did the same. Slowly the seal itself came into view - a metallic circular seal bearing an inverted pentagram with creepy-looking horned goat's head on it. Just looking at it made Jonathan shiver a little.

* * *

Dawn sat Indian-style in the middle of the living room floor. She was surrounded by big white candles, and in her lap a huge tome sat open in her lap, and the room was permeated by a strange breathing sound. Xander and Isabel sat on either side of Dawn, holding her hands.

It had taken some time to set this up, and Dawn was in a hurry. Dawn, Xander, and Isabel had spent many minutes trying to communicate with her mother. After little success, they figured out that something was holding her, preventing her from speaking, or from moving on to her afterlife. They had quickly decided that the best way to proceed was for Dawn to attempt to banish the spirit, drawing on Xander's and Isabel's strength. She wanted her mother free, free to talk to her, free to move on.

"I know you're there. I will cast you out. My mother needs to talk to me." Dawn said to herself aloud as she prepared the spell's ingredients.

A bowl of dust sat in Isabel's free hand. Xander took some and sprinkled it on the ground between them when Dawn signaled him to. Very suddenly an unseen force cast them all backwards to the edges of the room. The stopped as they hit the walls, and were more or less OK. Isabel had managed to hang on to the bowl.

"I cast you from this place.," Dawn said, nodding for Isabel to sprinkle more of the dust. "It is your poison and your bane." Again, she nodded and Isabel sprinkled even more dust on the floor.

Then Dawn screamed as something slashed at her face, leaving a bloody gash. Again she nodded for more dust.

"It is the skin that is cut from your flesh!"

A strong wind arose and snuffed out all the candles. A creaking sound was heard from one side, and suddenly the window exploded into the room, throwing shards of glass everywhere. Dawn and Isabel screamed, and Xander yowled. The girls looked on in horror as Xander looked down and saw a large shard of glass sticking out of his chest. A moment later, he fell to the floor.

Dawn cried, "Xander!"

Isabel pulled out her cell phone and dialed Max.

* * *

Buffy came into the motel room, and shut the door behind her. "Hey guys, you'll never guess what I found on p..." She turned around to see Max and Liz in bed. "Oh. Am I interrupting something?" Then she noticed Tess for the first time. "Or did she already do it? Who's the new girl?" Buffy asked, inspecting the cute blond suspiciously.

"Actually," Max replied. "She's the old girl."

"Max," Liz put in. "How can she see Tess? I thought Tess was mindwarping us so we would see her... how can Buffy see her too if she's not really here?"

"Maybe she's mind warping Buffy too?"

"Whoa, my mind is warped enough already, thank you!" Buffy pouted.

"She didn't have time to mind warp Buffy," Liz said.

"So if you're not just a consciousness," Max asked, "What are you?"

Tess looked around. "Oh, my, look at the time! I really need to be going!"

"Tess!" Max yelled. She didn't reply. Liz was giving her a death glare. After a moment, Tess just disappeared.

"Wow, I thought I had relationship problems... but I've never had the ghost of an ex show up while I was having sex," Buffy remarked.

"Technically," Liz said. "We were finished having sex."

Max just shrunk back under the covers.

Suddenly, the phone rang.

* * *

END OF CHAPTER 5

* * *

Hey guys, I never thought that this chapter would end up being a 3-part extravaganza, but there's just so much to try and keep track of! I'm really enjoying writing this story, and I hope you're enjoying reading it. Any input in the form of reviews is highly appreciated, and will help chapters come faster. I'm averaging one or two a week though, so it's not like they're not already coming fast enough!


	6. Conversations With Dead People Part 3

* * *

Chapter 6 - Conversations with Dead People - Part 3

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Author's Note:  
Hi guys, sorry chapter 6 took so long to get up. Real life has a way of rearing its ugly head at inopportune moments. I've got Chapter 7 mostly written already as well.

For whoever it was who asked me to make the SG-1 portions not suck, they're not central to the story yet. But, they're getting there, as you will see in this chapter.

* * *

Isabel held her cell phone to her ear. She could hear it ringing on the other end. She wished Max would hurry up and answer. It had rung almost three times already.

Dawn stood up and continued the banishing spell, knowing that if they didn't, Xander might very well die. "I cast you out with every prayer from every god that walked the Earth and crawled beneath," she screamed. Suddenly, she was thrown across the room. Whoever she was banishing obviously didn't want to leave. Isabel took Dawn's former place next to Xander as Dawn continued with a bloody, swollen lip.

"I cast you out with the strength of those who love me!" She stood up and moved to Isabel to hold her hand. "I cast you out with the strength I have inside me! I cast you out into the void!" Dawn took the bowl of dust from Isabel's hand and threw it to shatter against the wall, spilling its contents into the air. "That's right! You hurt Xander! Die, you bastard!"

Abruptly, the wailing wind was silenced. Splattered blood is all over the walls, staining them crimson. Almost as abruptly, that faded away as well. Dawn, her strength expended in the banishment, collapsed in a heap on the floor. Isabel smiled at her, and Dawn smiled back.

Not a moment later, the room began to fill to overflowing with a bright, golden glow. It faded enough after a few moments to make out its source: Joyce Summers stood in the center of the room, glowing cheerfully, and smiling warmly down at Dawn.

In Isabel's ear, the phone clicked, and Buffy answered. _"Max's phone,"_ she said with an amused tone.

Isabel dropped the phone as Joyce came into view, and as Dawn announced, "Mom!?"

* * *

Maria looked at Alex like he'd just grown another head. Alex just gave her the same dumb smile he always did when he knew something she didn't yet. "Well?"

"Well, what?" Alex grinned in a way too cocky manner.

"Well," Maria expounded, "are you going to tell me what this message is, or do I have to find a pillow and beat it out of you?"

"Oooh, yeah. Well, you see, I'm here to deliver a warning. Now, it sounds like bullshit to me, I have no idea what it means. But give me a second to get this straight." Alex gathered himself, shaking out his hands as though he was just about to do something which required extreme skill.

"Will you just get on with it already," Maria said in her annoyed tone.

"Yeah. OK, um... 'From beneath you, it devours. From above you, it conquers. From among you, it captures.'"

"That's it?" Maria said, incredulous.

"Well, there was also some part about some weapon and a hand or something, but I'm sorry... I was too excited to pay too much attention."

"_Alex_!" Maria shrieked. "God himself gives you a message to deliver, and you only listen to half of it?"

Alex looked ashamed. "Jeez! Sorry, Maria. Will you tell Isabel I love her, and give my love to Liz? I've got to go now."

"Alex, you are not leaving until you remember the other half of that message."

"I'm sorry, Maria, but I just, I have to go." Alex reached out his hand toward her, and grinned.

As she went to take it, Maria sneezed. When she looked up again, Alex was gone.

* * *

Willow looked absolutely distraught at Cassie's revelation. "I... I'm gonna what?"

"That's why I came," Cassie explained. "We needed to warn you."

"Y..You saw my path? W..what do you know? What... what did you see?"

Cassie just shook her head. "You don't want to know what we saw."

Tears began to well up on Willow's face. "Oh, God!"

"But if you stop... Completely, I mean. No more magic..." Cassie said.

"Right," Willow nodded. "Right. Stop. Wait... what about Giles? He made it seem like it was just as dangerous for me to quit completely, like I'll go off the deep end again.."

"Willow, you can't. If you do so much as another spell..."

"But... I tried to stop!" Willow sobbed. "I tried! What if I can't do this?"

"Don't think that way," Cassie said quietly.

"Well, how can I not!?" Willow screamed. "You're telling me I'm gonna murder all my friends. I'm not strong. I'm not an Amazon. I'm just me."

Cassie considered for a moment. "Well, there is one thing - one thing you could do to stop it."

Willow's eyes widened at the prospect of hope. She sniffled up her sobs. "What? Anything!"

"And you could see her," Cassie continued. "You wouldn't have to talk through me."

Willow whispered her name like a prayer. "Tara?"

"That's what you want, isn't it?"

"Of course!"

"So just go," Cassie suggested. "Be with her. Everybody will be safe, and you'll be together again." Seeing Willow's look of fear, she explained. "It's not that bad. Really. It's just like going to sleep..."

Willow stopped dead. Not dead enough for Cassie. Just then, Maria walked back in.

"Hi, Will," Maria said. She turned to Cassie. "Who's your friend?"

"Yeah," Willow said, her eyes narrowing as her worry turned to anger. Her look bored right into Cassie. "Who are you?"

* * *

Carter consulted the GPS unit once more. They had just left the principal's office of the school, where she had sworn they would find their energy source. There having been no kind of alien technology in there, they had decided it must be further down.

"Carter, Why are you bothering with that thing now? I know Google Maps has gotten really good, but I seriously doubt they have a floor plan for the high school," Jack said. He wasn't really annoyed with Carter, he just found the place creepy. Which was ironic since he'd felt better when they were back in the cemetery.

"Colonel O'Neill is correct, Major Carter," Teal'c said. "Our next objective is to find a way into the sub-level of this facility."

"Guys," Daniel said.

"Just a minute, Daniel, I'm thinking," Jack said. "I think maybe we can get.."

"Sir, we should split up and search by sectors, maybe map the place out. We can eliminate regular classrooms as we go."

"Guys," Daniel said.

"Sector-by-sector's a good idea, Carter, but I'm not sure that it's a good idea to split up."

"We can always," Sam began.

"_Guys!_" Daniel interrupted, raising his voice.

"Well jeez Daniel, we're right here, you don't have to shout!" Jack said. "What?"

Daniel pointed to the open doorway across the hall from them. The door, which was opened inward, was marked 'Basement'.

"Oh, for crying out loud..." Jack started. "Let's go."

* * *

"Finally," Jonathan said. They'd finished completely uncovering the Seal. Andrew nodded to him, and they began the clean-up. They swept the seal free of the remaining dust, and then started packing up their tools. Jonathan grabbed his bag and began shoved the dustpan and brush into it. He grabbed for the shovel, and Andrew helpfully handed it to him. They smiled at each other, and finished the cleanup. Jonathan put down his bag by the door and turned back to look at the Seal again.

"This thing gives me the creeps," Jonathan said. "I can't wait to get rid of it."

Andrew came over behind him and put his hand on Jonathan's shoulder sympathetically. "I know," was all he said.

Jonathan turned around to answer Andrew, "you know, I.." his voice trailed off as he saw what was behind Andrew. His was visibly startled by the sight of Warren standing there. Suddenly, Andrew's hand flashed out. Jonathan's eyes widened, as he looked down at the knife in his belly, then back up at Andrew and Warren. His brows creased, and his mouth fell into a frown. His eyes were haunting, the look of a man who has just been betrayed in the worst possible way. Andrew tried to talk, to apologize, but he couldn't. He just stood there, holding the knife in Jonathan's gut. Finally, he pulled it out, and Jonathan fell onto the Seal. His blood began to pour out from the deep wound, filling the grooves in the Seal, and when the blood completed the circuit of the Seal's edge, the metal began to glow as Warren and Andrew watched. Andrew was still in shock. Warren just smiled.

* * *

"Things are coming, Dawn." Joyce's voice somehow almost echoed as she spoke. "Listen, things are on their way. I love you, and I love Buffy, but she won't be there for you."

"What? Why are you - ?" Dawn began.

"When it's bad, Buffy won't choose you." Joyce interrupted. "She'll be against you, Dawn. Remember." As she spoke she began to fade.

"No!" Dawn screamed. "No, don't go! Please, don't go!"

Isabel got up and took Dawn in her arms. She held the girl as she screamed and lashed out, until she became calm. "Dawn, we need to get Xander help, or he'll die. As long as the glass is in him, he isn't bleeding too badly... but Dawn, it's pinning him to the floor."

Dawn's eyes bugged out. How could she have forgotten? "Xander!" Dawn sank to the floor next to him.

"Dawn, don't touch!" Isabel screamed. "If you jostle him even a little he might die. His only chance is for Max to get here and save him."

"So, we just wait?" Dawn said. "You can't seriously call that a plan. I can't just sit here doing nothing!"

Isabel picked up the phone, ignoring her temper tantrum. "Buffy, get Max, and bring him here. Xander needs his help..." She noticed that something seemed wrong. "Buffy?" Isabel looked at her phone. She wasn't connected to anything. She called back, frantically.

Dawn noticed Isabel's demeanor change. "What's wrong?"

Isabel listened. "Pick up, pick up!"

_"Isabel!"_ It was Max's voice that answered this time. _"Buffy heard you explaining to Dawn. We're already in the van."_

"Oh thank god!" Isabel said. "Hurry, Max. Just... hurry."

_"We are, Isabel. We are."_

* * *

Willow and Maria were both looking at Cassie, waiting for an answer.

"Suicide thing was too far, huh?" Cassie asked. "Hmm... you seemed so ripe!" She smirked.

Maria was confused, but on edge because of Willow's reaction. She was not amused. The whole Queen Elizabeth sort of 'We are not amused' that could be followed by 'Off with her head!'. Frankly Maria found it scary. Willow looked daggers at Cassie. "Tell me who you are."

Cassie wasn't fazed. She leaned forward and said conspiratorially, "I stand by my opinion. The world would be a better place if you took a razorblade to your wrist..."

"Stop," Willow said quietly.

"I can see it now," said Cassie, like she was describing a romantic tryst with a lover rather than a date with death. She stood up and opened her arms as though painting the scene. "Candlelight... the Indigo Girls playing, picture of your dead girlfriend on your bloody lap..."

"Stop it!" Willow growled.

"'Oh, baby, you left such a big hole!'" Cassie mocked. "'It hurt so bad!'" She leaned in and looked suddenly deadly serious. "You don't know hurt. This last year? It's gonna seem like cake after what I put you and your friends through." She smiled, "and I am not a fan of easy death. Fact is, the whole good-versus-evil, balancing the scales thing? I'm over it. I'm done with the mortal coil." Cassie's smirk suddenly became a beaming smile, "But believe me, I'm going for a big finish!"

"From beneath you, it devours." Willow said.

"'From beneath you, it devours,'" Maria repeated. "Alex said that..."

Cassie sat down in a chair and leaned back as though relaxing in class. "Oh, not it." She explained. "Me!"

Her bright smile became abruptly a wicked one, containing a whole universe of evil. Her skin rolled back grotesquely, and she turned inside-out, and suddenly disappeared.

"I think you should go tell the others what just happened." Maria said. "Then maybe I'll have some clue about it myself."

* * *

Andrew was still holding the bloody knife, in shock over having just been able to kill his best friend. The Seal began to glow. He turned around to talk to Warren, but all he saw was flashlights.

"Hold it right there," Jack said, pulling his sidearm and pointing it at the boy... who had either just killed that other kid, and had a whole lot of explaining to do.

Daniel threw up.

Teal'c moved forward and quickly subdued the boy. Andrew was silent right up until Teal'c disarmed him and then bent his arm back behind him in a chicken wing.

"Ow! Ow! OK, I surrender..." Andrew said. "Um... Parlay?"

* * *

It took minutes for the van to come screaming down the street and pull to a stop outside the Summers house. Max ran in, with Buffy hopping out right after him and arriving in the house well before him to kneel next to Xander. She was crying already.

"Thank god," Isabel said, the tears on her face only just now beginning to dry up. After she'd put the phone down, she had broken down.

Max nodded. "Now, you know if I do this he'll be changed." Max said. "He'll become one of us." Max looked at Buffy. "Would he have any problem with that?"

"He doesn't get a say," Isabel screamed at her brother. "He's nearly dead, now. _Heal._ Him. Right. Now." she growled.

Max was still looking at Buffy. She nodded. "He'll be ecstatic if he gets some kind of cool alien powers out of the deal.", she forced a smile.

Max nodded and put his hand on Xander's forehead. Then, with his other hand he pulled out the huge chunk of glass. Blood began to gush everywhere, and Max's hands began to glow. Sweat beaded up on his forehead, and he grunted with the effort.

"Hurry up!" Isabel said, but Max ignored her. He was too busy coursing through Xander's nerves, and veins, and muscle fibers... healing all the damage he could find. After a minute, the glowing stopped. Max collapsed back on to the floor, spent. Isabel wiped at the blood covering Xander's chest, revealing unbroken, perfect skin.

"Thank you, Max," she whispered. She hugged him.

Dawn went to Xander and sobbed.

Xander's eyes opened. Buffy instantly grabbed him into a bone-crushing hug. "I've got to say... _ow_ Buff... more with the breathing!"

Buffy let go and hit Xander in the arm. "You're not allowed to die! It's a rule!"

Xander chuckled a little, though it still hurt a bit. "I remember, Buff," he said, rubbing his arm. "I'll keep it in mind next time."

Isabel surprised everybody by shooing Buffy and Dawn with a look, and then grabbing Xander and kissing him deeply. Xander at first tried to resist, out of surprise. Buffy shot him a 'what the hell are you doing, go with it,' look. At that point, he stopped resisting, and started to kiss her back.

Isabel broke the kiss, and slapped him across the face. "How _dare_ you! Hmph!" she got up and walked out to the van where Liz was.

Xander didn't know what to do, he just sat there, his face showing the kind of shock and awe that the U.S. Military could only dream of inflicting upon anybody.

"Don't take it too hard, Xander. She's complicated." Max said. Max stood up, having gotten his wind back, and offered his hand to Xander.

Xander, shaken from his shocked state, took the hand and stood up as Max pulled.

"What now?" Xander asked.

Dawn took this opportunity to jump on Xander, knocking him backward onto the couch, and then laid a massive kiss of her own on his lips. He was disturbed by how much he enjoyed it, although he made a massive show of resisting for Buffy's benefit. Dawn then repeated Isabel's performance by slapping him in the face, and said. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Dawn went up the stairs to her room to see if anything was left of it.

Buffy stared daggers at him. Max, unable to control himself, began to giggle.

"So," Max said. "Rough night?"

* * *

Chapter 7 will be up this weekend! I promise it will have much more with SG-1. This episode was important set-up to the story as it's going to go on. From here, the Buffyverse is in uncharted territory. There's been a lot of foreshadowing in this episode, so keep your eyes peeled as to where it's all headed. If you have any comments, questions, or ideas, REVIEW ME! :-)

Cheers!


	7. Preludes to Murder

* * *

Chapter 7 - Preludes to Murder

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Michael was getting very bored, sitting on the ground up against a grave stone. Buffy should have been back ages ago. If he hadn't left his cell at the motel, he could call for an update, but when he'd realized he'd forgotten it, Buffy said she had hers so it wasn't a big deal. Well, now it was a big deal, he was sitting alone, in the middle of a graveyard, at night, with nothing to do but wait until Buffy got back with the others.

Or, he could always mess with the invisible thing. He'd been sitting here for a good while, and felt he might have rested enough to check it out using his powers.

Grinning at the prospect of a more interesting plan, Michael stood up and moved over to where he could feel the invisible, metallic wall. Touching it, he closed his eyes and began to feel around its molecular structure. It was BIG... and shaped like a pyramid. It had little ridges like stunted wings coming off the sides, and... he thought he sensed an opening. Feeling around until he found it, he grinned as he entered the open area and suddenly he saw a bluish-black metal doorway, where there had been nothing before. Seeing a button to the side, he touched it, and the door slid open. Obviously the people using this thing weren't expecting anybody to find it.

Inside was disappointingly dull. It was a blank room with walls the same dull blue-black metal as the door had been. There were a few crates, and not much else. Then he noticed what could be another door on the far side of the room, and went over to it. Jackpot! Touching a button in a similar place to the one on the other door, it slid open to reveal an alien-looking cockpit. The symbols were certainly not from _his_ planet. Which meant other aliens.

Suddenly he heard shuffling outside.

Crap!

He moved as fast and as quietly as he could manage to crouch behind one of the crates. He saw four people enter, leading another in handcuffs. They all looked human but he knew from experience that that didn't mean much.

There was a moderately pretty blond woman plainly dressed, and a man with glasses similarly attired. Of slightly more interest to Michael was the older guy with the salt-and-pepper hair who screamed 'leader'. But his eye was very quickly drawn to the huge black man with the gold thing on his forehead, leading a skinny little kid in handcuffs.

He had to get out of here, but they were all still standing by the door. The woman went toward the cockpit and started the ship, but the others were watchfully keeping an eye on the nerd, keeping him here to prevent him from seeing the flight controls, Michael guessed. He waited until all of them were looking the other way, and started to stand, but dropped down quickly again when the ship lurched.

Double crap!

He was on an alien spaceship, headed god knows where, without his cell phone, and nobody knew where he was.

Maria was going to kill him.

* * *

Liz smiled as Max came out to the van with Buffy.

"Everything's OK now, I take it?"

"Yeah," Max said. "Xander's OK now. Dawn's upset, and Isabel..." his eyes flicked over to Isabel who was sitting dejectedly in the back seat of the little bus. "Has she talked to you at all?"

"Hasn't said a word," Liz replied. "She's been like this before. She needs some space, so I wasn't going to pry."

Buffy nodded. "Smart girl you've got there, Max."

Liz beamed. "Why thank you."

Buffy grinned. "Now, we need your smarts. While I was on patrol tonight, Michael and I found this... Oh my god! Michael doesn't know what's going on, and he's going to think I abandoned him!"

"What do you mean?" Max asked.

"We found this invisible... _thing_ while patrolling. Rather than let it get away, Michael stayed with it, while I came to get Liz to check it out. But I left him there before I showed up when Tess was there with you, and now we had the thing with Xander. Michael's going to kill me."

* * *

"Take us home, Carter," Jack said. Carter nodded and went into the cockpit, closing it behind her.

Once the ship took off, Jack smiled. "OK now, twiggy, you're all ours now. What have you got to say for yourself?"

Andrew thought about it for a minute. "I'm kind of going through a bad time right now... my best friend just died, and..."

"That might have something to do with the fact that you _stabbed_ him, would it? What's a kid like you doing playing around with strange devices anyway?"

Andrew shrank back against Teal'c as though the stern-looking Jaffa offered some sort of shelter from Jack's withering glare.

"Jack, what if it wasn't him?" Daniel said.

"What do you mean, Daniel Jackson? We found him, alone with his friend who had a fresh knife wound. He was standing, holding the weapon and the victim was on his stomach. His guilt seems self-evident," Teal'c said.

"What if he's a Goa'uld? It is rare because they like to be thought of as gods, but they have occasionally been known to pose as humans if it served their ends."

"I don't mean to interrupt," Andrew said, "But I'm like, an expert in six forms of demonology, and like... I've never heard of any demon called a Goa'uld."

"Demon?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, you know... big, scary... sometimes furry and nice. But mostly, you know, big, and scary."

"Shut up, kid. You're annoying. Don't talk anymore unless we ask you a question."

Andrew shut up.

"Thank you," Jack sighed. He countered Daniel's argument. "They have, but they can't keep it up for very long. If there's one thing the Goa'uld are, it's easily provoked. This kid's scared of me. If he was a Goa'uld, he'd already have told me to bow down and worship him, or something."

Daniel nodded. "I suppose."

"And you know, I think..." Jack was cut off as Andrew interjected.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but... like... can I have a drink? I'm kind of thirsty."

"No," Jack replied. "No drinks on this flight."

"Oh." Andrew said. "Well, then, um.. can I go to the bathroom?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. It was going to be a _long_ half-hour flight back to the SGC.

Jack walked off to gather his thoughts, and muttered to himself quietly. "I'm going to kill him."

* * *

Max and Liz walked slightly ahead of Buffy and Isabel. They were being all lovey-dovey, and neither of the girls wanted to be particularly close.

"Was he mad?" Isabel asked.

"Huh?" Buffy said, confused by the random question.

"Xander. That I kissed- I mean slapped him."

"Xander?" Buffy said shocked. "I only think it would have shocked him if you were human."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Isabel clearly was not following Buffy's meaning.

Buffy sighed, then explained, "You see, Xander doesn't date normal girls."

"What?" Isabel said, startled.

"Well, it's not by choice. It's just that it seems the only girls attracted to Xander are of the _other_ variety... Let's see, there was the Preying Mantis woman who was our substitute teacher, there was Cordelia, who's her own species... the Mummy girl, Anya the demon girl... basically, the only girls who like Xander are the decidedly normality-challenged."

"Hmm." Isabel said, thoughtful. "So, he attracts weirdness?"

"You could say that."

Isabel smiled. "I guess I don't have to feel guilty for being so attracted to him then."

"Why would you feel guilty?" Buffy asked.

"He's a bit of a dork," Isabel said.

"Well, yeah," Buffy replied, "But he's at least the loveable sort. Besides, he's got the biggest heart of anybody you've ever met, and he knows how to take care of people."

"Was it awkward how I left it with him?" Isabel asked.

"A little bit. He seemed less confused when your brother took him aside and explained how you feel to him."

"Max did what?"

"He told Xander that you were really attracted to him, but conflicted because of your recent relationships, and basically that you're very complicated."

Isabel's eyes flared. "I'm going to kill him."

* * *

Agent Franco walked into the Sunnydale Gas'N'Go. Outside, his black Ford Crown Victoria sat at a pump, looking every inch the government-issue car that it was. Franco took off his mirrored aviator sunglasses, and faked a smile for the clerk. "Fill it up," He said. He walked away to find himself a drink. He grabbed a bottle of coke, When he came back to the counter, the clerk was still sitting lazily watching his game on the small TV in the corner. The seedy-looking man in his late thirties was engrossed his team crept closer to the end zone.

Franco frowned. "I asked you to fill it up."

"Sorry sir, it's self-serve," he said, waving Franco off.

Franco's eyes went hostile. "I really think you should fill it up. I will let you keep the change."

"No thanks," the clerk said dismissively. "I'm watching the game."

Franco lost his temper. "You will not address me that way. I'm F.B.I.!" Franco snapped.

"And I'm ex S.A.G. Got no use for initials anymore since I left L.A."

"Fill. It. Up," Franco growled. "Now."

"Pump your own, or go away," the clerk said.

"You _will_ service my vehicle." Franco said.

"Yeah... or what?"

Franco's eyes flashed bright white as he pulled his hand out, a strange-looking device fitted around it. "Or," he stated in a deep, alien voice, "I'm going to kill you."

* * *

Buffy strolled up to the place where she'd left Michael carefully. "He was right around here somewhere," she said. "Michael!"

Liz came up behind her. "Where is it?" she asked.

Buffy pointed to a spot where there was an indentation on the ground. "There. It's right here. You should be able to feel it if you walk that way, but be careful, Michael clotheslined himself on it. Michael!" she yelled.

Max looked around, waiting for Michael to respond. "I think maybe he got tired of waiting."

Liz walked in the direction that Buffy had indicated, and kept walking until she was standing in the indentation on the ground. "There's nothing here," Liz said, "Although, this looks like a footprint. A plane, or maybe a ship, landed here, I think." Liz had enough experience with ships from being around Max that the idea didn't seem far-fetched.

"Well," Max put in, "If it was here, it's gone now."

Buffy was dialing Michael's phone. It rang out. "He's not answering."

"Michael," Liz asked. "Where would he be that he wouldn't answer his phone?"

"With Maria," Max said.

Buffy shook her head. "She was at the library with Willow, and they weren't back yet."

"You don't think..." Liz started.

"He might have left with the ship?" Buffy finished.

"I'm going to kill him," Max said.

* * *

Xander sat on Buffy's couch, wondering about Isabel and Dawn and their actions earlier. Isabel was... well, considering she was an alien, probably smack in the _middle_ of 'his league'. And she'd been the queen of her world, like Cordelia. _I've dated Cordelia,_ Xander thought hopefully. She was probably the only 'normal' girl he'd ever dated, although Cordelia herself would never allowed him to use so mundane a word to describe her.

Xander sank back into the couch. As he was lost in his thoughts, he heard Dawn come back downstairs. He looked up at her confused, not sure whether to feel hurt or flattered or both. Dawn saw his look and blushed. She adopted her matter-of-fact face, and sat down next to him, tucking her hair behind her ear nonchalantly.

"So," Dawn said.

"So." Xander replied.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Dawn began. "I shouldn't have... er..."

"Kissed me?"

Dawn instantly looked offended. "Was it that bad?"

Xander held up both of his hands. "Whoa, I am not allowed to answer that question. Even thinking about you in a non-sisterly way is grounds for a Buffy-powered Xander-thumping."

Dawn smiled, "So... you enjoyed it?"

Xander looked around, exaggeratedly looking out for others. They both knew they were alone in the house. "You're a much better kisser than you have a right to be." Xander said.

"Good," Dawn said, smugly satisfied. "I wouldn't apologize for kissing you! I was apologizing for slapping you."

"I forgive you," Xander said.

"Of course you do," Dawn said. "I'm cute. But I thought you deserved the apology anyway."

Xander smiled, trying hard to resume thinking about her as his little sister. "Well thanks, there, Dawnie," he said.

She frowned, then leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "Oh, and Xander?"

"Yeah Dawn?"

"If you ever die on me again?" Dawn announced pointedly, "I'm going to kill you."


	8. Verbal Diarrhea

* * *

Chapter 8 - Verbal Diarrhea

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Michael was really nervous. He had to go to the bathroom, he was cramping from crouching for so long, and he was just plain angry because he was, well, Michael. The ship had been flying for almost half an hour now, and he had been suffering through the interrogation of the guy in handcuffs. Well, perhaps not interrogation because they'd been unable to ask him a question and get an answer yet. Aside from seeming kind of confused, he was also the most annoying person Michael had ever heard of. Five more minutes of this and he'd be tempted to alert the others to his presence just for the opportunity to knock the kid out.

"So your name is Andrew Wells." Jack had only just managed to pry this piece of information out of him. "And you're not a Goa'uld?" Jack asked, with a weary look.

"Um, I don't think so... but it's hard to answer when I don't know what a Goa'uld is. Is it like a Jedi?" Andrew responded. "That's my religion of choice. I used to be a sith, but I'm reformed now."

Teal'c looked outraged. "The Jedi are a noble sect, striving for justice and the preservation of balance. You, are a murderer, Andrew Wells. Your claims of reformation have no substance given the evidence provided by the circumstances of our encounter."

Andrew looked extremely uncomfortable. "I... I don't know if... Don't I get, like, a phone call or something?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Do we look like cops to you? You're on an alien spaceship... we're slightly out of the jurisdiction of your Miranda rights."

Andrew's eyes widened. "I've been kidnapped by aliens?" Teal'c raised an eyebrow at his exuberance. "That is so cool!"

"I don't think you get it here, Judy, you're a murderer who was playing around with some dangerous alien technology," Jack said.

"That wasn't alien. That was the Seal of Danthazar."

"Gesundheit," Jack said."

"Hold on, Jack." Daniel said. "The seal of what?"

"Danthazar. He's a demon, a real big bad. Jonathan's sacrifice will keep Danthazar from destroying the world. Also, it was supposed to make me a god." Andrew said, a little bashfully. "Still waiting for the second part."

Daniel looked thoughtful. "If a Goa'uld was sealed away by an alien race we don't know, he could be searching for a new host. Thus the promise to make anybody who freed him into a god, by possessing them."

"Great, so we've got an unknown race of aliens with technology we don't understand, and "

"Not technology," Andrew said. "It was a magic seal. Once we'd bound him we were going to tell Buffy and she'd have let us in her gang."

"Buffy," Jack asked. "Who's Buffy, and why did her parents hate her so much?"

"Buffy's the Slayer." Andrew began to recite, "...One girl in all the world with the strength and skill to fight the demons, the vampires, and the forces of darkness..."

Daniel looked over at Jack, a bewildered look on his face. "Soo... what you're saying is that people are afraid of vampires, and the vampires' big boogeyman is a little girl?"

"Buffy's not little, she's a young woman." Andrew said. "OK... maybe she is little."

Michael, unable to help it, began to snicker a little at the dig on Buffy. She was so sensitive about her height.

Teal'c noticed the sound right away and began looking around for its source.

"It would be best for you to show yourself now," came Teal'c's ultimatum. "If we have to search for you, we wll be more frustrated. But we will find you, there's no place for you to go."

Michael put his hands in the air and stood up. "I don't know what kind of aliens you guys are, but..."

"We're not aliens," Daniel interrupted. "The ship is."

"Way to keep top-secret top-secret, Daniel." Jack said.

"Colonel O'Neill, you already said as much out loud. If he has been eavesdropping the whole time, I believe any kind of cover story at this point would be redundant." Teal'c added.

"Yeah, about that... How did you get in here, kid?" Jack sounded extremely irritated.

"Through the door," Michael said. "I was just walking along, and I kind of ran into this ship... er, literally."

"Walking along." Jack said. "You expect me to believe that."

"Yeah."

"Through a cemetery."

"I've got a few friends there."

"After dark?"

"Yeah," Michael added.

"Alone." Jack put it out there.

"Alone," Michael agreed.

"Anyone else think that's too weird for words?" He asked.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Buffy's house, the whole gang had gathered to share what they'd learned and talk about how to rescue Michael.

"So Will, think you can do a spell to locate Michael?"

"I.. I think so, Buffy."

"Your tone is hiding your overwhelming confidence, Will."

"It's just... with the magics. She told me that if I ever did another spell..."

"Earth to Willow... that was the Big Bad talking. You can't believe a word she said."

Willow nodded. "You're right. I'm just.. woo-oo-oo, you know?"

"Is that a technical term," Max asked.

"Yeah," Maria replied. "It's a reference to the native California language word for 'woogy in the head'"

"Ah," Max said, satisfied.

"Guys, this isn't helping!" Isabel interjected.

Dawn ran upstairs.

"Did we upset her?" Isabel asked.

Buffy responded, "I don't think so... she's not _that_ sensitive,"

"Ooh," Willow sounded excited, "maybe she's jealous because she saw that you and Xander are holding hands!"

Xander and Isabel looked down between them and noticed that their hands were, in fact, clasped.

"Huh," Xander deadpanned. "How'd _that_ get there..."

Isabel looked at it, blushed momentarily, and then took her hand back from Xander, rubbing it in a way one might pet a cat who'd just escaped from the house of a sadistic neighbor.

Xander smiled slightly.

They chatted for a few more minutes, and Dawn came flying down the stairs with a wooden box and a huge modern-looking book, which she lay at the feet of Willow.

"What's this, Dawnie?"

"This is my location spell kit, Wills."

"Kit?" Xander said. "What, are they selling Li'l Witches Spell Sets at Target now? I swear, you can find anything in there if you look around long enough."

"No, Xander," Dawn rolled her eyes. "I've put together a bunch of standard spell kits so that if we need a spell I can just grab the right set of ingredients and I'm good to go. I've got ones for location, banishing.."

"I'm impressed, Dawnie." Willow said.

"I'm upset, Dawnie," Buffy said. "You've been studying magic and you didn't tell me?"

"If I'd told you, you would have told me now, Buffy."

"With good reason! You're messing with stuff that you don't understand, Dawn."

"What makes you think I don't understand it? I'm the same age as Willow was when she started, and I'm smart, and careful. If I hadn't had the know-how, I wouldn't have been able to banish that spirit that was holding Mom." Dawn said.

Buffy did something she never did. She shut up.

"Anyway, guys, location spell. It's all right there. I can do it if you're worried, Willow, but you'll be better at it, obviously."

Willow nodded. She picked up the large bound atlas of the western US underneath the wooden box. "Nice, Dawnie. It's big, and we can drill down the search, scry on the state map, and get to more and more specific maps." She smiled.

"That's the idea." Dawn began to lay the stuff for the spell out on the table. "Let's do this."

* * *

The conference room at the SGC contained General Hammond, calm as always, and Major Davis, much more moticeably upset. SG-1 walked in with their two prisoners. Andrew was in handcuffs, while Michael was just going on good behavior. He hadn't tried to escape, because although he thought he could handle getting past the guys, he'd been on a spaceship with nowhere to go. Now, he was inside a top-secret government facility, and it was a lot less likely they would just let him go. But he wasn't in any danger yet, so he played along. With any luck, he'd find a way out before they dissected him to see what made him tick.

They all sat down at the conference table, and Major Davis slapped a thick leather folder down in front of Michael.

"Before we begin, please sign that, Mr. Guerin. It's a non-disclosure agreement. You will be bound by law not to repeat any of what you have seen or will see here to anybody once you leave."

"How do I know I'm not, like, signing my body over to you, or signing away my civil rights, or something?" Michael asked.

"Read it if you want," Davis said. "Just don't take all day. We have a briefing to get on with."

Michael skimmed over it, then went to the last page and scrutinized the fine print. Satisfied it was what they said, he signed it. "Good, now... who the hell are you people?"

Hammond looked at Michael, but Andrew interrupted. "Don't I have to sign a non-disclosure thingy?"

"You're a prisoner," Jack said. "He's a guest."

Ignoring Andrew and Jack, Hammond began. "This facility is called the SGC. We deal with non-terran threats to Earth, or specifically the USA, since this is a government-sponsored organization answerable to the President. You're not cleared to know any more than that, really. People are not supposed to know that there are dangerous aliens out in the galaxy. Civilians least of all.

"So you're all human?" Michael said. "Except _him_ I mean," he clarified, nodding to Teal'c.

"Yes, we're all human. As far as we know."

"So what's he?"

"I am Jaffa." Teal'c said.

"Thanks, that's helpful," Michael said sarcastically. "I don't suppose you've got anybody to explain this all to me who could be a little more vague... I've almost managed to glean a few details."

"I'm sorry son, but you just don't have.."

"'The clearance,' I know." Michael said. "One more question though. What's a Goa'uld?"

Hammond looked at Jack, who nodded. Hammond rolled his eyes, and nodded back. Daniel watched the exchange, and took up the responsibility of answering. "The Goa'uld are an alien race of parasitic worms who can take over a person's body. Once they take a host, that person's aging process is slowed, they're much stronger, faster, and healthier. They heal much faster than a normal person and can cure almost any disease. Also, they can move from host to host, living centuries this way, so they have vast quantities of experience and knowledge. Add that to their vastly superior technology..."

"And massive egos," Jack interjected.

Daniel rolled his eyes and continued, "And they like to set themselves up as gods. They have entire planets full of humans enslaved, keeping them in awe of their power and subservient."

"So if they're so big and powerful, how come they haven't come here?"

"They're powerful, but so are we. And we have allies. They would not risk a direct confrontation."

"Are you allied with the Antarans?" Michael asked tentatively, almost afraid of the answer.

"An-who-ans?" Jack said, confused.

"That'd be a no. But I thought aliens came under the jurisdiction of the FBI Special Unit," Michael said.

Jack looked surprised. "The who?"

"The rogue NID outfit, Sir." Sam's eyes narrowed as she turned back to Michael. "How do you know about the FBI Special Unit? They don't exactly have billboards."

Michael panicked at his slip, and started to think of a story. Hammond raised an eyebrow, and Michael relented. He supposed if Teal'c was with them they weren't the 'dissect first and ask questions later' types. "I'm an alien. Well, a hybrid human-alien." Michael said.

"Like a Goa'uld? Part human, and part alien?" Daniel asked.

"No. Physically, almost fully human, but with an evolved chemistry, brain, and an alien consciousness, from what you might call a previous life." Michael said.

Sam looked stunned, then smiled like she'd just won the lottery.

* * *

Hi guys. I hope you liked this chapter. I will be trying to get them up fairly regularly from now on. On an up note, I've passed the 20,000 word mark. I'm now a fifth of the way toward my word goal, but the way the story is panning out, it could be even longer.

If it does look like it's gonna get much longer than that, I may split the plan into two storylines and just make the second half a sequel, but I'd rather have it all be one complete set.


	9. Beforemath

* * *

Chapter 9 - Beforemath

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Willow and Dawn dropped their hands. Having exhausted the limits of Dawn's California atlas, they had moved on to a map of the US that Dawn printed off the net, which put Michael in Colorado. Having cast the spell so many times, Dawn and Willow were both becoming tired, and they'd been unable to easily narrow it down much more than that.

"We should stop now, Dawnie."

Dawn nodded, out of breath.

"I'm actually just amazed that you kept up with me. You've got a lot more power than anybody gives you credit for!"

"Buffy knows I'm strong. Unfortunately, she also knows I'm breakable."

Willow nodded. "She's kinda not much with the riskiness."

Dawn nodded. "I'll always be her little sister even if I am older than she was when she started slaying."

Buffy walked into the living room. "How's it going?"

"He's in Colorado, but that's all we know. We can't keep going, we need to get some rest. We've done this a lot, and I started out tired."

Buffy nodded. "How are you, Dawn?" she asked pointedly.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I'm fine. Honestly, I've got Willow watching me, what could happen?"

Buffy sighed, but relented. "OK. Just... take it easy. Get some rest. It's late, you should sleep." She flicked her eyes back at Willow. "Both of you. I'm going to head back out to patrol some more."

Willow nodded. "It's definitely beddy-bye time for me. Good luck, Buffy."

"Thanks, Will."

Willow and Dawn both headed up the stairs, and Buffy left.

* * *

"Thanks for having me over," Isabel said. "I just needed some time away from... well, everybody. Living in a hotel with your brother, your last-life's-husband, their girlfriends, and your best friend can get kinda, you know, claustrophobic."

"No problem," Xander said. "This place feels kind of empty with just me rattling around in here." He left Anya out of it. She was off somewhere committing vengeance on unsuspecting men, but the ghost of her settled over his words, hanging in the air.

"Listen.. if you're not ready yet, or whatever, I'll understand."

"No, it's not that." Xander moved and sat down next to her on the couch. "It's just that... well, I haven't had a girl here since Anya..."

Isabel stood up. "I get it."

"No," Xander insisted. "I just wasn't comfortable with the thought that I was at home having another woman here. But I am. At home. With you. Not that this is _our_ home. I-I just..." Xander got a grip on himself and put down his metaphorical shovel before he dug his grave a little deeper. "What I mean to say is, I'm glad you're here."

Isabel smiled. "Me, too." She moved a little closer, and pecked him on the cheek. "Very."

It was a cheek kiss. The Kraft Light Mayonnaise of kisses. But this one seemed, somehow sexy. As if that slight brush held the promise of all good things inside. But still, Xander was no cheek kiss kind of guy.

He slid his arms around Isabel, and kissed her passionately on the lips, where first kisses belonged.

"Mr Harris!" She exclaimed. "Are you trying to seduce me?"

He looked a little abashed. "I, er, um, that is, no?"

Her smile turned into a predatory grin. "Good, because that's my job."

Scant moments later, clothes were being strewn everywhere as they frantically disrobed each other.

A couple of hours passed and Xander and Isabel were lying in bed together, both totally wired, but unable to move after the hour-long orgasm they'd just had.

* * *

The next morning, Dawn was the first one up. Kyle had spent the night on the couch because Max and Liz had wanted some privacy at the motel. Maria was upstairs, still asleep in Dawn's bed. The sleeping bag hadn't been very comfortable, thus the early rising. She came downstairs for something to drink, and stopped on the stairs to watch from around the corner when she found Kyle doing pushups.

In his underwear.

Dawn hadn't really noticed Kyle before... he was a self-effacing kind of guy. Not really quiet, but not the limelight kind of guy. He reminded her of Xander a little. Dawn was definitely appreciating how pretty he was. She watched him work out, his muscles flexing easily under his skin. After a few pushups, and then crunches (which she particularly enjoyed) he sat in a lotus position and began to meditate. How he could go so quickly from so active to so calm was a mystery to Dawn. She came out, and not wanting to disturb him, began to sneak quietly through the living room to the kitchen.

"Hi, Dawn." Kyle said, not opening his eyes.

"H.. how did you know it was me?" Dawn asked.

"It was pretty simple. You're the only Dawn-shaped person who lives in this house."

"But, your eyes are closed."

"Well, yeah. But that only helps me to open my... other senses."

"Ah, sensing with your antennas or whatever you guys have?"

"Hey, we don't have antennas. It's just that the energy that bonds your molecules together is visible to me in my head."

"Sounds like a personal problem."

"Dawn, can I ask you something kind of... personal?"

"Y-yuh huh?"

"Why are you different from everybody else?"

Dawn chuckled nervously. "What do you mean? How am I different? I mean, Willow's a witch, and so am I even if I'm not as big and witchy as her..."

"I mean, to my inner eye you're... I don't know how to describe you. You're person-shaped, I can see the energy that flows through everybody else, flowing the same way through you. But there's more... inside you... it's like this pure, green light swirling through your blood..."

"I.. I have to go now."

"I'm sorry, Dawn, I didn't mean to.." he trailed off as Dawn hurried into the kitchen. Saddened that he'd hurt her, he muttered. "It's so beautiful..."

* * *

Xander woke up with Isabel snuggled into his side. It was a decidedly pleasant way to rise. In fact, he thought to himself, I'm rising already.

Isabel mumbled a happy noise and burrowed into his side a little more.

_Alright,_ Xander thought. _Here I am, in bed with an insanely beautiful alien. I hope this works out, because if it doesn't, I might actually have to date a human; I think I've just about exhausted the other possibilities._

Isabel's eyes opened. "Mmm.. good morning," she said, adjusting herself against his side.

"Good morning, beautiful," Xander asked. He sounded chipper. Of course, he couldn't help but be happy after last night. "How'd you sleep?"

Isabel smiled. "Like a very happy, tingly log."

Xander, who was making a little tent in the sheets, tried hard not to think about happy, tingly logs.

"Breakfast!" he exclaimed. "How about some pancakes?"

"Sounds lovely," Isabel said. "Do you have any hot sauce?"

* * *

Willow and Dawn tried again to look for Michael after finding some better maps of Colorado. They pinpointed his location pretty precisely, and Willow was able to research the address on her computer. Michael was at NORAD? Had he been captured by government alien hunters and been taken there to be researched and studied?

They started to plan a rescue operation when Willow noticed the little light moving rapidly towards the west.

"He's coming back!" Dawn exclaimed.

"And fast," Willow said.

The others were relieved, but Maria, Max, and Liz still worried.

"I'm going out on patrol," Buffy said. "You guys stay here, and if I see Michael, I'll give him a good firm spanking and send him home to you with no supper," she said.

Everybody just looked at her dumbfoundedly wondering what to say to that.

It was only looking at everybody's blank stares that she realized what she'd just said. "OK, I did not need that mental image either. Bye, guys," she said, grabbing her coat and walking out the door.

* * *

Michael had spent the better part of the last day being questioned by SG-1 and General Hammond. Now, he was once again riding toward Sunnydale in a spaceship, what he'd been told was called a Tel'tak.

The last few hours were a dizzying blur to Michael, who was mostly unable to answer their questions definitively. Max was the king, so any agreements between Earth and Antar were up to him to iron out, assuming he could first convince them to put him back on the throne, or he even wanted it. All of Sam's questions about how his powers worked... Well, Willow and Liz could answer a lot more of those than he could.

He'd been able to explain what the Hellmouth was to some degree, and all of his vague answers and his assertions that other people would know better than he had brought SG-1 to visit the Scoobies.

The real reason Michael was smiling so hard right now was that SG-1 had told him that the FBI Special Unit was a rogue group, and that the SGC was doing everything they could to contain them. It looked like the universe might finally have cut the Roswell gang a break.

Michael's smile faded off with a sigh as he looked at Andrew, still handcuffed, sitting in the corner of the cargo hold. Michael had convinced SG-1 that they'd need Andrew to explain exactly what was going on to Buffy, as thus far Andrew had stubbornly refused to say a word to anybody but the Slayer.

"So, like, how fast does this spaceship go? Is it like, Warp 9.6, or like, Hyperdrive speed?"

"Andrew, please, shut up. So very please." Michael's former smile was quickly becoming a forbidding scowl.

"I just wondered, because, like, I can hear the ship humming and I couldn't decide whether it was more of a Hyperdrive hum.."

"Andrew!"

"Yeah?"

"Didn't you say you wouldn't say a word, except to Buffy?"

Andrew put on his best 'noble resistance' face. "That's right. You'll never make me talk..."

Jack looked at Andrew pleadingly. "Can we make you stop?"

Daniel put a hand on Jack's shoulder. "Jack,"

"Sorry, it's just... you know I like my peace and quiet. Now I've got neither. Makes me cranky."

"We'll be there soon, Jack. Sam said ten minutes."

"Thank you, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said. "It is good to know that our journey will soon be at an end," the normally unflappable Jaffa said with an even face but a slight undertone of relief.

* * *

It was a fairly slow night. Michael and Buffy had killed that huge nest of vamps last night, and now there wasn't much action left for tonight. Buffy had dusted one lonely vamp and now was lost in her thoughts, worried about Michael. She was busily mulling over the events the others had told her about their experiences last night. It was because of this preoccupation that she didn't hear as somebody crept up behind her, and tapped her on the shoulder. Instincts took over, and Buffy twisted the hand and flipped, throwing her assailant over her shoulder and landing on top of him with a stake to his chest.

She managed to stop just before plunging it in when Michael grimaced up at her. "Ow. You know, I like you Summers, but if Maria catches you on top of me we're both going to die."

Somebody else laughed. Michael knew it was probably Jack.

"Where have you been?" Buffy shouted. "You disappeared, and..." Buffy noticed the others for the first time. "Who are your friends?"

"Can you let me up?" Michael asked. A moment later he added, "Please?" as Buffy hadn't moved. She nodded and stood, offering him a hand up. Pulling him to his feet, she turned to face SG-1.

Michael smiled. "Buffy Summers, this is SG-1."


	10. Bring on the Night Part 1

* * *

  


* * *

  


Chapter 10 - Bring on the Night

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Franco and Barnes walked out of the main office of the seedy motel, having coerced the clerk to provide them with information.

"It's on the lower level," Barnes said.

They found the room, number 108, and Franco pulled off his black leather glove, revealing his Hand Device. He sent a wave of energy out which blew the door off its hinges into the room. They rushed in, but found nothing.

"Empty," Franco seethed.

"But it provides us with myriad clues from which to determine their current location," Barnes said in a deep, inhuman voice.

Franco nodded. "Soon, we will find you freaks, and when we do, we will have your bodies!"

Barnes smiled eerily. "They will make excellent _hok'tar_. And when we study their genetics we will be able to create _hok'tar_ for all our brothers, and then we will have the power to overthrow the System Lords."

They began to dig through the trash, the piles of clothing and books lying around.

"_Bristow's Demon Index_," Barnes exclaimed. "What the hell are they reading?"

* * *

"..And that's how hyperdrive works." Carter finished.

Andrew was watching, his eyes big as saucers and with rapt attention.

"That's amazing!" Willow said, "I mean, I've given some thought to slipping between dimensions and the energy requirements involved, but who would have thought that you could..."

"Sam, Willow, I don't mean to bust up the geek jamboree, but we need the brains on the problem at hand."

"Sorry, sir." Carter said sheepishly.

"No problem. So what have you guys learned from Andrew?" He gestured to the boy who was tied to the chair next to the couch where the two of them were sitting.

"Well, as near as we can determine, from what Andrew tells us, he was visited by whatever it was that appeared to everybody else. He says it looked like Warren." Willow's jaw clenched as she said Warren's name. "But Warren's dead! If you were going to disguise yourself, why do it as somebody we know is dead?"

"Maybe it just wanted to mess with your heads," Jack said.

"Indeed," added Teal'c, "It is often an effective psychological warfare tactic to see an enemy as invincible, or to see people come back from the dead. It is something which is used to great effect by the Goa'uld."

"OK, so we're looking for a demon who likes the psych out, and likes looking like dead people."

"Oooh!" Dawn said. "I know this! I think it's..."

"The First." Buffy said, walking in. "Hand me that axe?"

"How'd you know?"

"Because there's a pack of those icky Bringer guys outside chasing a girl this way. Let's welcome them, shall we?" Jack tossed Buffy the requested axe, and Buffy turned around and walked to the door. She opened it quickly, and Michael followed her out along with Xander.

The lead bringer had caught up to the girl, and caught her in the back with his knife. She fell to the ground.

"No more time," Buffy said. Rushing past the girl, she engaged the Bringers who had just reached Buffy's lawn. Michael and Xander joined her armed with a baseball bat. Michael put out his hand and threw one of the Bringers into a nearby fence. Max quickly rushed out to heal the girl, but found her already dead.

The battle was joined. Michael rushed to engaged his Bringer point blank, The others attacked Buffy, their swift, efficient movements and coordinated attacks forcing the slayer to react until she could catch an opening. Xander hit one of them in the back, and it turned to fight him instead. Buffy was left with one to herself, but no sooner did she engage that one that that two more caught up to the fight, triple-teaming the slayer.

The Bringers managed to maneuver them all apart. Michael kept throwing his into stuff, but it kept getting up. Michael and his target disappeared around the side of the house.

Buffy saw an opening, and building on the momentum, short work of her three Bringers, One she decapitated, then a few punches, ducks, blocks, and kicks later, she repeated the feat. Two down, one to go. She turned to engage the last.

Xander was having only a little trouble with his. By the time he finished it off he glanced up and noticed that Buffy had just embedded her axe in the chest of her third, which slumped to the ground.

"You'd think the First could get some minions a little less creepy looking..." Buffy quipped.

"Well," Xander shot back, "I guess that's what comes of not being able to check yourself in the mirror before you go out..."

"Why? That was never a problem for Angel or Spike..." She shrugged and turned toward the house, as another Bringer slipped out from behind a bush, and raised its knife to plunge into her back.

"_Buffy!_" Xander shouted. Without even thinking, he raised his hand, and it crackled with green sparks. The Bringer flew away from Buffy like it had been hit by a Mack truck as Michael came back around the corner of the house. Buffy turned, grabbed the axe from the chest of the dead Bringer next to her, and buried it in the newest Bringer before he could stand up. She yanked it out and held it in her hand. "Anybody else want a go? No more surprises?" Buffy sighed deciding it was over for now, and walked back into the house without another word.

Michael walked over to Xander, who was looking at his hand in shock. "Wow," Michael said. "Liz didn't develop her powers for like two years. How the hell did you do that after one night?"

"I... I don't know," Xander said. "But why wasn't everybody else as shocked as us?"

"I think Buffy thinks it was me." Michael supplied by way of explanation. "Still, you should talk to Liz about it. I wonder why it happened so fast..." Michael stopped as his eyes went wide. Then without warning he drew back and punched Xander hard across the face. Xander went down.

"Xander!" Isabel and Willow cried simultaneously, watching from inside.

Buffy came back outside.

Xander began to get himself up. "What was that for?"

"You slept with her!" Michael accused.

"Well," Xander began as he rubbed at his jaw, "not that it's any of your business, but yeah..."

"Michael!" Isabel stormed out the door and stood between the boys. "What are you doing?"

"I'm... I'm protecting your honor. He slept with you!"

"I'm aware of this, Michael. Get to the point."

"How could he!?"

Isabel gave him a death glare before calming down to a merely furious state. "Michael, we're both adults. I wasn't raped, and it's _none_ of your business who I sleep with. Ugh!" Isabel grabbed Xander by the hand and dragged him inside.

Max walked up to Michael. "How'd you know?"

"Xander has powers."

"Like, our kind of powers?"

"Yeah." Michael confirmed.

"That was fast," Max said.

"Yeah. They only started holding hands last night."

"I was talking about the powers," Max said. "The thing with Xander and Isabel's been building for ages."

"Oh."

"We should tell Liz."

"Is your girlfriend always the first thing you think about?" Michael asked.

"Usually," Max said.

* * *

"Has anybody seen Dawn? We need some information from this book, but we can't read it." Buffy asked.

"Your little sister can read a book you can't?" Jack asked.

"It's in Sumerian," Willow explained. "And we need solid information. My Sumerian is like..." Willow shrugged, "... not."

"Dawn can read Sumerian?" Daniel asked, intrigued.

Willow nodded. "Her brain's like one big language center. 'Dawn's Sunnydale Language Center. Translating the ancient and obscure since 2000'. She's a genius for it."

"Wow." Daniel said. "How many can she read?" he said as they walked into the kitchen where Dawn was sitting at the counter with her homework.

"Dawn?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, Buffy?" Dawn looked up with a look that said, _I'm doing math. Please, have anything else for me. Please!_

"This is the book that has most of the information we know about The First, but it's written in Sumerian."

"Oh, o-ok. Pass it here." She took the heavy volume and paged through it to the section she wanted, sounding out the words quietly to herself as she skimmed down the page. "Ugh..." she said. "The ancient Sumerians so did NOT speak english... give me a minute."

Daniel was flabbergasted. "You read ancient Sumerian?"

"Yeah. Modern Sumerian too. If you can really call three thousand years ago Modern..."

"How many languages do you read, Dawn?"

"What, oh.. um.. twelve?" she said.

"Twelve! How many can you speak fluently?"

"Um... eleven. If by fluently you mean 'slowly'. And the twelfth... well, we haven't the faintest idea how that one demon language is supposed to be pronounced because the demons don't have any mouths. We think that they speak using gases they emit from their, er..."

"They talk out of their ass," Jack said.

"Y-uh huh." Dawn acknowledged, still reading. "There's a lot of stuff here about the First, but it's all the standard doom-and-gloom stuff, nothing really useful at the moment. It's not really supposed to be able to come all the way into this dimension. And it can look like dead people, which we knew." She skimmed a little more. "Eww!" she pointed to a picture on the page. "There's a diagram and a description of how it makes those Bringer guys. That's disgusting!" she said, pointing to a picture of a man whose eyelids were spread open and whose eye was being extracted. "Please don't ask me to read the captions! I don't want to know."

* * *

The First Evil. It was a pretentious name, all things considered. Baal smiled. His new partnership was proving very fruitful. Already, he was stronger than any Goa'uld had ever been. He could surpass even Anubis now. The First had now become his consort, and paid him tribute by imbuing him with power beyond imagining. Now he was truly the god of gods. It had been... incredible... to merge with her. The Goa'uld liked to think that they were gods, but he'd never known any power as great as that of Evil itself. He would use that power to claim the galaxy, and the stars themselves would bow down before him.

"It's almost time," Buffy said. "Are you ready to make your grand entrance, my love?"

Baal smiled. "Anubis will be crushed before me. The Tau'ri cannot stop me now. The Asgard, are as nothing to me. Together, we will teach them all the meaning of fear."

Buffy gave him a wry grin. "Ooh, so feisty! Now, while you make your way there, I have something else that's just beginning to get interesting to attend to." With a wink at him, she blinked out.

* * *

"Dawn," Kyle said, knocking on her bedroom door. Dawn was on her bed, surrounded by massive books. "Wow, how did you end up being alone?"

"The same way as always," Dawn said. "I do the boring stuff that nobody else can. Or wants to. Nobody else wants to stick around." She shrugged.

Kyle, being a somewhat sensitive new-age guy, picked up on the emotional undertones that most men would choose to ignore. "Do I sense a spot of resentment?"

Dawn sighed. "I never know what to do with myself. I mean, I kinda live in Buffy's shadow. Buffy's so hot. Buffy's so charismatic. Buffy's so strong. Buffy's so special... do you _see_ where I'm going with this?"

"Come on, Dawn." Kyle looked at her deeply. "She's not the only one. You're different.. special, too."

"I... can't really talk about that." Dawn was blushing, and really nervous. She didn't want him to think of her as a freak.

"I know it makes you nervous," Kyle said with a hint of a smile. "But one day soon, Summers, I'm gonna figure you out."

He started to walk out of the room and stopped just before he disappeared around the doorway. "And that... that'll be an interesting day."

* * *

Spike was hanging over the Seal of Danthalzar, and sliced open by several Bringers. "You know, that whole subtlety thing?" Buffy said, "I'm over that."

Spike screamed as the bringers carved into his flesh and his blood began to flow. "What do you think, Spike? Wanna know what a _real_ vampire looks like?" Buffy grinned as the blood landed on the seal, and it folded up and opened. An evilly gnarled, sharply clawed hand reached up, pulling behind it one of the ugliest, most primal faces Spike had ever seen. Its huge, slitted eyes looked at him, then at Buffy. She just smiled.

* * *

Author's Note: Hi everybody. Thanks for reading this far, and being so patient. I must have rewritten this chapter about ten times, and I'm STILL not entirely sure I'm happy with it. But now that I'm through it, I think chapter 11 will be easier to write. Those of you who've been wondering where Spike's been the whole time... you'll find out soon.

Also coming next chapter: Dramatis Personae. Somebody said there's too many characters to keep them straight, so I'm going to compile the list for you. I think that I've let most of the cats out of the bag so far, but I think I still have one or two surprises.

* * *


	11. Bring on the Night Part 2

* * *

Chapter 11 - Bring on the Night (Part 2)

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

"Anything yet on the girl, Wills?" Xander asked.

"Not yet," Willow replied. "But they must have wanted her for some reason. Bringers... from what we can figure out, are not so much with the random murder. The First has a plan, and I'll find out what. Ooh! I got a hit. According to her ID, she's Karen Beauchamps, and she's from New Orleans..." Willow typed some more and then frowned. "From what I've been able to find on her, she's got no criminal record, not even a traffic ticket. Current address still listed in New Orleans. No records in the papers around there of her disappearance, at least none that mention her by name."

"So we're going with, 'she's a girl.'" Xander deadpanned.

Willow nodded. "Sorry," she apologized.

"It's OK, Wills. Nobody expects you to be magic." Xander considered. "OK, well, maybe sometimes we do, but that's more with the, you know, real magic and less with the pull-case-breaking-facts-out-of-nothing magic."

Sam was watching over Willow's shoulder, half in awe of what she'd just seen the girl do, and half in shock at her blatant disregard for the law. "You know what you just did was illegal in most civilized countries, including this one..."

"I guess so. But I don't break into secure databases unless it's for saving the world."

"Well," Jack interjected, "At least it's for a good cause..."

Sam, Daniel and Teal'c all looked at him. "What? You've known me to blatantly disregard orders in the name of saving the world..."

Daniel nodded thoughtfully. "Doing what must be done regardless of possible personal consequences is the mark of a true warrior," Teal'c added. Willow blushed.

"Well," said Max, "If we can't get anything on the girl, what do we do next?"

"You're our fearless leader, Maxwell, don't you have a plan?" Michael said.

"Whoa," Buffy said. "I don't remember any votes putting Max in charge of all of us, and last I checked, supernatural evil? Still my jury's prudence."

"Jurisdiction," Isabel corrected.

"What she said," Buffy nodded, crestfallen. "You know, an angry quip just doesn't have the same kick if it has to be corrected."

"We're the official representatives here," Sam commented.

"We don't really trust the government to handle these things anymore since the last massive cock-up..." Xander explained.

"Right," Jack said. "So we're being superseded by a bunch of kids."

Buffy nodded. "Right. Aliens, your jurisdiction," she said to Jack. "Other aliens, Max's jurisdiction." she nodded to Max, "And supernatural? That's my ballpark."

"And if you don't like it, we'll take our ballpark and go home." Xander said. Everybody stared at him. "OK, that would probably have been more effective if we weren't already... you know, I think I'm just going to take a walk, do a quick perimeeter check."

"I will go with you, Xander Harris." Teal'c said.

Xander nodded and grabbed his favorite axe, then walked out the door trailing Teal'c.

"I don't know what's wrong with us," Buffy said. "First me, now Xander... I bet the First is doing something to our punning power!"

Willow smiled. "It's just an off night, Buffy. You'll be punning again by morning, I promise!"

Buffy looked a little better. "I hope so."

* * *

Franco looked at the notepad on the dresser. "1630 Revello Drive. And a phone number. We should check it out."

Barnes nodded and they ripped the paper out of the notepad, walked calmly back to their black sedan and drove off.

* * *

Dawn lay on a blanket in her backyard looking up at the night sky. It was an uncommonly clear night, which kept the dull glow of Los Angeles safely at bay over the horizon. She never got to do this anymore, just lay down on the lawn and watch the stars. Xander walked up and tossed down his axe and lay down next to her. Having already completed their circuit of the house, Teal'c had gone back inside.

"Hey Dawn patrol, penny for your thoughts."

"Just thinking."

"Yeah, but when I saw 'penny for your thoughts,' you're supposed to then actually tell me what those thoughts _are_."

"A penny? Xander, I think my thoughts are worth more than a penny."

"A nickel?" Xander offered. Dawn glared. "A dollar?"

Dawn snickered. "That's more like it."

Xander smiled. "Jeez, you're not a cheap date, are ya?"

Dawn perked up. "Is this a date?"

Xander backpedaled. "Umm... no... I meant, um..."

"It's OK, Xander. I know you're kinda with Isabel now. I just get tummy-rumblings still."

"Dawn, you know, if you were either a couple years older, or you know, not the little sister of my best friend who can break me with her pinky..."

"I know. Ugh! It's always about Buffy!"

"Ah, the infamous Jan Brady syndrome."

"Huh?"

"You're so young, it's cute. Stay cute," Xander smiled. "I should be getting in before Isabel thinks I'm making time with you and scrambles my man-par... er, molecules! Scrambles my molecules."

"Good night, Xander."

"Good night, Dawnie."

Dawnie was the whole problem. Cute, fragile, incorrigible little Dawnie would never get any real respect. She needed them all to see that she was a woman now, and deserving of their respect. She didn't want glory or anything stupid like that. Just to be recognized, to be seen for what she was, and have other people be proud of her for it.

She'd have to get their attention somehow.

* * *

"Maria, we've been through this," Michael said. "A hundred times, I don't know how you're supposed to access your powers. Liz has them but she's like, off-the-charts smart, so maybe her brain's different from yours."

"Well," replied Maria - who was a little affronted by the perceived-but-not-meant slight to her intelligence, "I am smarter than you, space-boy, so I must be able to do something. Xander's only been changed one night, and he's already got that telekinesis thing down..."

"I don't know how he did that."

"Look, maybe your brain's different from mine, and my explanation of what I do won't work for you. Have you tried asking Liz? She's human, maybe she could tell you how it works for you."

"I can't."

"Why not?" Michael asked, taken aback.

"I don't want Liz to think I'm jealous."

"But you _are_ jealous, Maria."

"But Liz doesn't have to know that!"

"What about Kyle?" Michael suggested.

Maria rolled her eyes. "You think I'd go to _Kyle_ with performance anxiety issues? Please Michael? Just do this for me? _**Please?**_"

"OK." Michael said.

"Great!" Maria said. "Get going..."

Michael left the room.

Not a moment later, Michael came back in the room.

"Maybe that's it..."

"What?"

"Well, we all have special powers connected to our kind of mind... I can implode things... Izzy can dream-walk... Max and his healing, Tess's mindwarp... even Liz's visions and Kyle's machine empathy. They're all related to our personalities, and they were all the first powers we used."

"So you're saying I need to discover my special power? Where'd you get a crazy idea like that?"

"Well, you said _performance anxiety_."

"And?"

"What's more you than performing?"

"So you're saying my singing is my special power? I could sing way before I got healed by Max," Maria pointed out.

"Not your singing, Maria. But something in your voice, maybe. I don't know. I _do_ know I was dead set on saying no to you, and when you said 'Please' to me, I just up and changed my mind. I didn't give in to your whining or anything, I just suddenly felt like it was the greatest idea in the world. Then when I got outside... I remembered what I had _wanted_ to say.

"So you're saying you changed your whole mind just because I told you to?"

"For a few seconds, yeah. Scary thought," Michael added.

"You know," Maria said, "This has possibilities!"

* * *

"The girl's school records indicate she's been involved in a couple fights in the last year, but nothing spectacular. This girl's as normal as they come." Willow said.

"Is anybody else a little creeped out that this redhead can find out everything about you in about twenty minutes without needing to get out of her chair?" Jack asked.

"Not that surprised sir. The SGC can do the same," Daniel said.

"Yes," Sam said, "But the SGC has access to all these government databases and Willow _isn't supposed to_."

"Well you gotta admit, she does come through in a pinch," Jack said. Suddenly, Jack vanished in a flash of white light.

Sam rolled her eyes, Daniel went and sat down, and Teal'c didn't make any indication that he'd even noticed.

Buffy watched incredulously. "Does he do that a lot?"

"Define a lot," Daniel said.

"Obviously enough that you guys just.. you know.. take your leader suddenly disappearing... in a stride."

"He's been known to do that from time to time," Daniel said.

"It's not really him," added Sam, "it probably just means Thor needed something. He's not much for red tape and bureaucracy."

"Ah," Buffy said. "As in, big guy in a toga who throws lightning bolts? He's on a first-name basis with a god?"

"I think you're referring to Zeus." Daniel said. "Thor was the god of thunder, not lightning. He has a hammer. Zeus had the lightning bolts. Although, I don't know about Zeus, but Thor's 'hammer' is a spaceship."

"A Beliskner class cruiser," Sam helpfully clarified.

"Also, Thor's not exactly what you'd call 'big'" Daniel said.

"He is four feet and three inches tall in earth terms. Small for a human, For Asgard, it is an average size." Teal'c supplied.

Buffy and Willow simultaneously gaped.

* * *

"Check," Liz said, moving her queen on-line with Max's king. Isabel, Kyle, and Xander watched the game. They were less fascinated with the chess, and more fascinated how with Max and Liz, even something as nerdy as chess could be foreplay.

Max smirked at Liz and moved his king to the side. His eyes seemed to say 'go ahead and chase me'.

Liz moved her bishop forward and took Max's knight. Max's eyes widened. Liz smirked right back at him. "If you don't start paying attention to the board, you're going to lose." She said. She was playing footsies with him under the table, distracting him as he tried to think about his next move.

"That's not exactly fair," he said.

"Who said I wanted to be fair," Liz returned. "I intend to win you, by any means necessary..."

Liz swept aside the chess pieces and threw Max down on the table. Climbing up she strattled him, and grinned. "I win," she said.

"Liz," Max breathed.

"Max," she said.

"Liz," Max said.

"Liz!" Max said loudly. She shook her head to clear it and looked over at him. "It's your go!"

Liz looked down at the chessboard. He'd just taken her queen.

Oh, pooh. They really needed some alone time soon.

* * *

Dawn came into the dining room holding a candle. She set it on the dining room table in front of Willow, then retreated to Willow's laptop at the other end of the table. Striking a match, Willow lit the various candles on the table in front of her and started to chant.

Xander came in and said to Buffy, "How's it going?"

"Dawn's trying to find out anything she can about the Seal of Danzalthar. Will's about to do a locator spell, see if we can find The First." She yawned. This night had ended up being far too long.

"Why don't you go get some rest. You haven't slept for like two days. We'll call you if we find anything, Buff."

"Nah, I-I couldn't sleep. Too much going on."

"It'll be OK, Buff. We've faced this kind of stuff before."

Willow scattered a mixture of sand on the table in front of her.

"You didn't see The First. I did. I felt it. It was like..."

Suddenly, a magical explosion sent Sam, who was watching Willow closely, flying back against the wall. The bowl on the table in front of Willow was pulsing with a bright scarlet light. Dawn shrieked and jumped up from her chair, retreating to put Buffy between her and Willow.

They all watched as the red light surrounded Willow and then entered her body through her nose. Her head was forced back, and a huge demonic spirit with massive horns and glowing red eyes shot out of her mouth towards Buffy.

"Will!" Buffy screamed as the demon retreated inside the witch, who rose to her feet. Red lightning bolts lashed out at Buffy and threw her back into the foyer.

Willow opened her mouth and a deep, possessed voice spoke through her. "You only make me stronger!"

Xander, thinking quickly, ran forward to snatch up the bowl from the table and shattered it against the wall. The eerie red light faded away, and Willow fell to the ground, sobbing.

"Will!" Buffy said, supporting the witch's head.

"It's still in me, Buffy," Willow sobbed. "I feel it!

"No, it's not. It's gone now. You're OK."

"I don't want to hurt anybody. Please, Buffy, don't let it make me!" Willow sobbed aloud again. "Oh, God!"

"We won't. I promise, OK?" She tilted the redhead's eyes up to lock on her own. "I promise. We won't use magic to fight this thing until we know what we're doing."

"I can't. I just can't. I'm sorry."

Just then, Jack reappeared in the living room in a short flash of white light. "Wow, I just flew in from orbit, and boy are my arms tired..."

"Jack!" Sam said. "What'd he want?"

"He wanted to warn us about some concerns he has about the Goa'uld. Something's going on - Anubis has stopped his entire campaign, just like that. We don't know what's going on exactly, but they've got some reports of a rising new star, named Baal, subverting Anubis' efforts in a bid for more territory... Carter, why are you holding your wrist like that?"

"I kind of got thrown back by an explosion sir. Landed on it badly, it's tender." Carter reported.

"I'm gone ten minutes and you start blowing stuff up?" Jack asked.

"It wasn't me sir, it was Willow."

"Willow's blowing stuff up?"

"She was doing her 'magic'... I think the ingredients she was using must have had some kind of forceful adverse reaction..."

Dawn looked at Sam incredulously. "After what you just saw, you can honestly say you still don't believe in magic?"

"I'll believe in magic," Sam said, "I just won't believe that it can't be explained by science somehow."

Dawn rolled her eyes.

"Anyway," Jack said. "Pack up, I talked to the General, and he wants us back at base. He talked to the Tok'ra about it, and they want a meeting. This new thing is taking priority. Rogue NID will have to come later."

Carter, Daniel and Teal'c all moved to gather their things.

Jack handed Buffy a business card. "Here's our number. Call us if you need anything, or if you find out anything. Oh, and by the way... can you take Andrew off our hands? We really don't have time to deal with him, and you may need him to find out what he can tell you about this 'Seal' thing."

"Sure. And thanks, Jack." Buffy said.

With that, Jack, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c left, and the Scoobies decided that after a ridiculously long night it was finally time to crash. Buffy called a meeting in the morning to discuss options. The Roswell gang just decided to stay at Buffy's house from now on, and get their things from the hotel in the morning.

* * *

Franco and Barnes sat in their car, watching. "The Tau'ri are leaving. We should wait for the creatures at their hotel room. They will return there sooner or later, and they will not have their allies with them." Barnes said.

Franco nodded, and the black car drove off down the street.


	12. Bring on the Night Part 3

* * *

Chapter 12 - Bring on the Night (Part 3)

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Xander grabbed Buffy's arm. "At least let me go with you."

Buffy shook her head and walked into the foyer to grab her jacked. "I'm going alone."

"Take Michael then?" Xander pleaded. "You said yourself, you don't know how to fight The First, or even where it is."

Buffy sighed. "It's out there. It's hurting my friends. I'll find it."

"All the more reason to take whatever firepower we've got." Xander said.

"Alright, come on Michael," Buffy said. Michael got up and grabbed his jacket as Buffy opened the door.

...And there was Giles. "Buffy..." he began.

"Giles!" A squal of delight escaped the blonde, and she moved to give the man a hug.

She was, however, cut off as three girls she didn't know barged into the house.

The first girl remarked, with a thick Cockney accent, "Nice place... bit of a mess." She passed Buffy and moved into the living room where Dawn and Kyle were talking on the couch.

The second girl gave Buffy a shy smile, and followed the Cockey girl.

The third girl looked Buffy up and down. "This is a slayer?" she asked Giles, sounding clearly unimpressed before heading into the house behind the others.

Buffy looked with dismay at Giles. The English man had the decency to look forlorn. "Sorry to barge in, but we have a slight apocalypse..."

* * *

The three girls were lined up against the wall in the living room. Dawn was inspecting them closely, and the girls seemed a little nonplussed. The scoobies were all sitting around the living and dining room on the various chairs.

"So they're all slayers?" Dawn asked.

"Potential slayers," Giles said, with a shifty glance to the Roswell gang, who were an unknown quantity to him. Seeing that Buffy didn't make any move to make the conversation more private, he continued. "Waiting for one to be called. There _were_ many more like them all over the world, but, um, now there's just a handful, and they're all on their way to Sunnydale."

Buffy remembered her recent dreams, with a faraway look. "The others were murdered."

Giles nodded. "In cold blood. As well as their watchers. We always feared that this day would come, when there'd be an attack against not just an individual slayer, but against the whole line."

Buffy's eyes lit up. "The First. That's what it wants."

"Yes," Giles agreed. "To erase all the slayers in training and their watchers along with their methods.

"And then Faith," Buffy sounded really scared, "and then me. And with all the potentials gone and no way of making another, it's the end. No more slayer. Ever."

Willow's brow furrowed. "But we haven't found a lot of information on The First. No documentation-"

Giles, crossing his arms, sat on the arm of the couch, tired. "That's because it predates any written history, and it rarely shows its true face. The only record I know was in the Council Library."

"And what about them?" Liz asked. It was the first time any of the newer Scoobies had spoken to Giles. "What did they tell you about this?"

Looking pointedly at Buffy, he simply said, "Gone."

The whole room was shocked.

"What?" Willow was the first to say what they were all wondering.

"Obliterated," he said calmly. "They were in session, and.. there was an explosion."

"So all the Council's records are destroyed?" the witch asked.

"Anabelle?" Giles nodded his head toward the shy girl. She stepped forward and opened her bookbag, to reveal two books and a small stack of files. The girl placed them down neatly on the coffee table, then stepped back towards the wall.

"This is what's left," the former Watcher said. "The mystic secrets of the Watchers. A-and whatever I could find on the First. When I learned what was happening, I- I um, I stole them. The explosion must've been an agent of The First, after my little burglary session. The knowledge contained in these files had to be protected, and there wasn't time for-for bureaucracy or debate. The Council knows no other way."

"And it cost them their lives!" said Andrew melodramatically. Everybody stared at the boy tied to the chair in the corner. He noticed everybody looking at him and swallowed. "Go on."

"Can we gag him?" Buffy said to Xander. Xander nodded emphatically and grabbed a roll of duct tape, tore off a piece, and pressed it down over Andrew's mouth. "So what do these records say about the First?" the slayer asked.

"Um, very little. It can change form. Uh, it only appears in the guise of someone who's passed away. Also it's not corporeal. It can't touch or fight on it's own. It only works through those it manipulates. And its followers, the Bringers."

"Those freaks in the black robes," Giles' third Potential said.

"Yeah, with the hoodies and the crazy alphabet eyes. I never saw 'em, I just heard" the Cockney one said.

"Shh! Molly!" the second girl, Anabelle, said. "Mr. Giles doesn't need us prattling on."

"But we already knew all that," Dawn complained. "You can't tell us anything new?"

"How did you know about..? No matter. The First is unlike anything we've faced before. I mean, there's evil and then there's the thing that created evil, the source." Giles said.

"And that's what this thing claims to be?" Buffy asked.

"That's what it is. It has eternities to act, endless resources..." Giles stood up. "How to defeat it... I-I.." He sighed heavily, a sound which dragged everybody's spirits down. "Honestly I don't know. But we have to find a way. If the slayer line is eliminated, then the hell mouth has no guardian. The balance is destroyed." He walked over and put his hands on Buffy's shoulders. "I'm afraid it falls to you, Buffy. Sorry. I mean, we'll do what we can, but you're the only one who has the strength to protect these girls - and the world - against what's coming."

"But no pressure." Xander said.

The third Potential girl got very angry. She walked into the middle of the room, as if taking the floor in a Pariliament or something. "That's it? _That's_ the plan? I don't see how one person, even a _slayer_, could protect us. I _saw_ what those bringer guys can do. They _tore apart_ my watcher."

Giles tried to calm her down. "Of course, we'll use all our resources..."

"And if this thing is the root of all evil, isn't the hell mouth it's number one vacation spot? I mean, don't you think we should be hiding our asses on the other side of the globe?" the girl asked.

"Kennedy!" Anabelle said sternly.

"No, she's not wrong. We need more muscle than just me," Buffy said. "So then, Giles, let me introduce you to our new friends from out-of-town..."

* * *

Spike's head broke the surface of the water and sunk in, under the force of the hands around his neck. Ugly, gnarled, evilly clawed hands which belonged to the First's UberVamp. The First itself currently wore the face of Drusilla, Spike's long-lost love. She, or it, was pacing the floor, waiting for her UberVamp to decide that Spike was done. As the ancient vampire pulled his head out of the water, she began to gloat.

"That's why our kind make such good dollies," Drusilla/the First said. She smiled as the UberVamp tosses Spike to the ground. He coughs up the water that's been forced into his lungs.

"Hard to kill." she/it said. "Tried to enlighten little Buffy, didn't you? Spilled, spilled, spilled our secrets like seed." She grabbed her dress at thigh level and slowly began to pull up her skirt, revealing her pale, perfect thighs. "But you forgot," She stopped raising the skirt and held it. "_I_ say what you tell, and what you know. _I_ say when this is over." She dropped her skirt and ran her hands up under her hair. "And I'm not done with you yet," she said innocently. Then sounding a lot more langorously crazy like only Drusilla could be, she finished, "not _nearly_."

With a click of her tongue, the UberVamp peeled Spike off the ground and dragged him into the water once again.

* * *

Buffy, Giles, Max, and Michael walked into the empty Christmas tree lot. It was rather creepy.. the lights were still strung all around the place, but no longer cheerily glowing. The trees were all gone, and it just looked abandoned.

"So the entrance to the cave was above ground here?" Giles asked.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was around here somewhere," Buffy answered.

Giles sighed. "Well, we'll just keep..."

"Here," Max interrupted. "Something's different under here," he said pointing to a spot on the ground.

Buffy came over to where Max was pointing, and with the sound of breaking wood, Buffy fell through it into a cave below.

"I warned her," Max said.

"Good lord!" Giles said, polishing his glasses and then putting them back on to peer down into the dark depths of the cave. "Are you alright?"

Buffy picked herself up and dusted herself off. "Peachy," she called up, "except my knees bend backwards now. OK, Giles, stay up there. I'm gonna check it out."

"No way am I letting you go into a cave alone," Michael said. "We back each other up." He lowered himself into the cave a bit more gently than Buffy had, and flashed her a roguish smile.

"Right," Buffy said. She started to walk down the tunnel among rows of stalactites and stalagmites that, if they'd had a little more light, might have been cool. Mostly, they just seemed like dark, ominous giants in the dark. Michael followed her, wishing he'd brought a sword.

Something passed by them both in the dark. They turned behind them to look, but there was nothing there. Buffy turned forward again, and was shocked to find the UberVamp in her face. Caught unawares, Buffy still didn't know what was going on when the thing punched her so hard she flew across the cave and into the wall.

Michael put his hand on a stalagmite, and rearranged its molecules into two crude swords. He tossed one to Buffy as she picked herself off the floor. Taking out her stake to hold in one hand, and the sword in the other, she closed on the thing. She tried to fight, but it was faster than her, and so strong that her blocks were mostly for show. "Any second you want to," _OW!_ "Help, Michael, I'd be," OW! "Grateful!"

Michael hadn't been idle while Buffy was fighting the thing. He'd turned one section of the floor into some sort of quicksand-mud, and directed Buffy to move the thing toward it.

Buffy retreated, and the UberVamp followed. She got some good shots in, but not nearly enough - she landed maybe only one punch out of three and never connected at all with the blade of the sword. The vamp grabbed the sword and punched her again, sending her flying once more across the cave. It followed, crossing the sandy mud and sinking in to its knees... and the quicksand once more turned into solid rock. Max smiled at the others, having followed them when he heard the sounds of the scuffle.

Now embedded in rock to its knees, the vampire couldn't really move properly.

Buffy smiled, grabbed her stake, and managed to stake it right through the heart. Michael smiled, just waiting for the dust.

Which never came. The UberVamp took one look at the stake through its chest, and growled. Its eyes narrowed as it looked at Buffy like an ice cream bar, and it took out the stake. Buffy did the only thing she could think of to do in this situation.

She panicked.

"Run!" she screamed at the others as they all watched in horror as the UberVamp slashed at the rock around his feet and began to break free.

They all ran for the cave entrance. Buffy almost casually tossed Max and Michael up through the cave entrance, and then jumped to grab the edge. Michael and Max grabbed her hands and started to drag her out. At that moment, the UberVamp grabbed her heel. He started to pull her back down, but she kicked it in the head as hard as she could manage, and it let go. She scrambled out of the hole as fast as she could, and breathed a sigh of relief which was very short-lived as the UberVamp started to pull its way out as well. But the sun was rising by this time, and as the rising sun hit his skin and began to burn, he quickly retreated back to the safety of the darkness in the cave.

"Well," said Max. "That was differe.." Max suddenly disappeared in a flash of light.

"_Maxwell!_" Michael shouted. He shook his head. "Liz is gonna kill me."

Giles took off his glasses and polished them again.

* * *

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of "Bring On The Night!"

Hey guys, I'm quite enjoying writing this story, and it's coming fast and furious lately. This chapter largely wrote itself because it's very nearly canon, but the seeds of divergence are sewn for the story to go wider away now that nearly everybody's in place.More potentials will be coming soon, and this time around, Buffy has more big guns than just Willow to lean on! Stay tuned!


	13. Interlude Alien Abduction

* * *

Chapter 13 - Alien Abduction

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

ASGARD STARSHIP BELISKNER, 6:32am

"..ent," Max finished as he appeared in a flash of light.

"You know, I expected that to take longer," Jack said.

"The Beliskner's scanners are very advanced, O'Neill. Based on your description, it was a simple thing to scan the western coastal area for a being matching his parameters," Thor said.

"Ah," Jack said, not really surprised anymore by the capabilities of Asgard technology. "Nevertheless, I kind of thought we'd be calling first..."

Max cut in, "'Hi, Max, nice to see you! How you been?'" the Antaran hybrid said sarcastically. "Also, in all the stories I've heard about alien abduction, it was usually the aliens _doing_ the abduction..."

Jack smirked. "Max, meet Thor. Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet. Thor, Max Evans."

"It is a pleasure to meet you Max Evans. I have heard much of you from O'Neill."

"Uh, hi, Thor," Max said nervously. _**The** Thor?_ Max mouthed to Jack, making a hammering motion. Jack nodded. "It's uh, nice to meet you too. Is there any way to let the others know I'm safe? You plucked me out just after a big fight, and they might think the Big Bad got me."

"Can you patch him through to the Earth telephone system, Thor?"

"One moment, O'Neill. What designation?"

"Huh?" Max asked.

"He wants to know what number you want to call." Jack explained.

"Oh." Max pulled out his phone, and read off Liz's cell number. A few moments later, Liz answered.

"Hi Max," Liz said. "What'd you find out?"

"Um, Liz... before you hear it from Michael and Buffy I want you to hear it from me. It's not their fault, and I"m perfectly safe... I've been abducted by aliens."

"What?" Max wasn't sure if Liz sounded worried, confused, outraged, or any combination of the three.

"Well, actually by alien. Singular, since I've only met the one. I'm here with Jack. I'm sure he'll explain why any minute now, but I wanted to call so you didn't worry when Michael reports back I'm missing."

An audible sigh of relief came through. "When will you be back?" she asked.

"Um..." Max looked at the others for a clue.

"We'll send him back as soon as we're finished, Liz" Jack said out loud. "But Thor wanted to meet him and wanted to ask him a few questions. The Asgard, Thor's race.. they're very curious."

"...Oh. OK." Liz said. "As long as he's safe and I have your word we'll get him back in one piece, I'll see you when you get home, Max. I love you!"

Max waited a minute, slightly embarassed to say it in front of the Air Force colonel and the alien Supreme Commander.

"Just say it," Jack whispered.

"I love you too, Liz..." Max said, with an embarassed smile.

There was an audible click, signaling Liz hanging up.

"OK, now why am I here?" Max asked the others.

"Well, it's kind of a long story," Jack said.

"I would like a sample of your DNA," Thor said.

"What?" Max said, a little nervous after his time in the White Room for anybody to be looking at his biology too closely.

"Maybe you should give him a little bit of backstory, Thor. Humans like reasons."

"Yes, of course, O'Neill." The small gray alien turned to face Max. "My race, the Asgard, are one of the five great races with power in this galaxy," Thor said. "The Five Races are the Ancients, the Nox, the Asgard, the Goa'uld, and the Tollan." He punched a button on his chair and a nearby holo-display showed examples of them all, it was a pentagram, with all races filling the center pentagon, and each race as a point on the star. The points were all of differing lengths. Then the longest point of the pentagram was highlighted.

"The Ancients are largely gone; they have 'ascended' to a higher plane of being. Their bodies are no more, they exist now only as psychic energy which we do not usually perceive." The second longest arm now lit up as he continued talking. It was the next one over from the ancients.

"The Nox, on the other hand, are a race of super-advanced brings who choose to live without technology and rather embrace equilibrium with their natural environments. They possess exceedingly advanced technology on a par with our own, but prefer to use their biological adaptations over technological advancements. It is exceedingly rare to encounter one because although they are spread throughout the galaxy, they prefer to remain isolated and can blend in so well with their natural environments that we would not know where they were even if we were right next to one."

The shortest point was the next one over from the Nox. "The youngest of the Five Races are the Tollan. They are not far advanced from the people of Earth technologically speaking, and research as Earth does ways to use technology."

Across the pentagram from the Tollan was the second shortest point, which lit up. "These are the Goa'uld." An ugly snake-worm thing was shown, and it slithered up inside a human. "They are parasites with a genetic memory. They reproduce by spawning, and their memories are transferred in their genes to their spawn. Their young are weak, and cannot readily survive on their own. Goa'uld infect a human and take over their bodies, colonizing at the top of the spine near the base of the brain. They completely usurp all brain functions. With their superior knowledge, they can make adjustments to a body to make it stronger, faster, and more resilient. They can eradicate nearly all diseases and neutralize nearly any known poison. They can release venom into the host, killing it instantly if they so choose. They have advanced technology most of which they have salvaged from remnants of the Ancients. The Goa'uld breed humans to use as hosts, and also breed modified humans they call Jaffa, who have been engineered as a warrior caste to serve the Goa'uld. With their power and knowledge, as well as their advanced technology, the Goa'uld often convince their slaves that they are gods to be worshipped. The Jaffa have special pouches in their stomachs to carry a young Goa'uld symbiote. The young goa'uld really _is_ a symbiote, providing all sorts of benefits to their Jaffa hosts including enhanced strength and immunities less than that of a full grown Goa'uld, but far in excess of human norms. However, when the Goa'uld symbiote has sufficiently matured to be self-sufficient, they kill their Jaffa host and find a human to control."

Max was rapt throughout the entire speech, and listened as he went on. "The people of Earth are currently at war with the Goa'uld, who control a significant portion of this galaxy and are always seeking to expand their power and territory."

Then the last point on the pentagram lit up. It was longer than those of the Tollan and the Goa'uld, and directly across from both the Ancients and the Nox. "My people are the Asgard. We are scientists, who have developed advanced technology, continuously advancing our intellect over our bodies. Many years ago my people began to perform genetic modifications, which were designed to allow us to evolve as quickly as our fast-developing technology. Eventually, my peoples' forms became what you see today, and we continue to exist in these bodies. However, these bodies eventually fail, so we clone ourselves and download our intellects into the new clone bodies. After some time reproducing this way, we lost the ability to reproduce sexually since we decided to cut anything unnecessary from our biology."

The display produced a diagram of an Asgard. It began to decay and so a small piece was broken off and soon there was a brand new, fully grown Asgard body. Then there were some wavy lines moving from the old body's head to the new body's head... and then the old body faded out, leaving only the new Asgard.

"However, it has come to my peoples' attention that this is no longer feasible," Thor continued. "You see, after a certain amount of replication, our DNA has begun to deteriorate. This causes problems for us in the long run; as it becomes less and less possible to replicate ourselves, my people will die out. We are seeking ways to get around this by repairing our genes by using leftover remnants of the Ancients' DNA within the human population. O'Neill is one of the humans who carries this Ancient gene, a very advanced member of his species."

"And you think we might have some of that DNA?" Max asked, finally cottoning on to the magnitude of the situation.

"I think it is very likely. From the transporter record, your DNA is very similar to a human's. The difference between your DNA and O'Neill's DNA may be the key to saving my people."

Max nodded. "This goes somewhat over my head. Can you bring Liz up here? She's a genius at biology."

Thor nodded his assent and pressed a few buttons on his control panel. Liz appeared in a flash of light.

"...worry" Liz said. "What?"

"Hi, Liz," Max said, reaching out to embrace his girl.

"Max!" Liz said, hugging him tightly. "Where are we?"

"This is the Asgard Cruiser Beliskner," Thor said. "We are in lunastationary orbit over the far side of your planet's moon."

"Hi," Liz said. Liz was always friendly, even when meeting new and very, very different aliens. "Um... I'm Liz."

"It is a pleasure to meet you... Liz. I am Thor."

"Thor here is in a bit of a pickle, and wants to borrow a bit of Max's DNA." Jack said.

Max nodded. "He says that studying the difference between my DNA and Jack's could help save his people, who reproduce by cloning. Their DNA is apparently deteriorating and they are looking for a way to fix it."

"I see." Liz nodded. "Would you do that here?" she asked.

"This vessel is well-equipped, although if you agree to it and preliminary tests prove fruitful we would probably set up a permanent installation here on the far side of your moon."

"I see. Well, can I be involved with the research? I've never had a real chance to study the biological differences between Max and a normal human, or between myself and a normal human." she said, "And I haven't exactly had access to a top-of-the-line bio-lab."

"You are not human, Liz?" Thor asked. His tone always sounded even, but somehow it still managed to convey the fact that he was intrigued by this.

"Well, I was born human," she explained. "But Max healed my body when I nearly died of a bullet wound, and ever since then, I've been... different. I seem to share some of Max's abilities, and have some unique ones of my own. I've had lots of theories, but I've never had access to the facilities, and the time, to do the research I'd need to confirm or debunk them."

"I believe it could be arranged for you to work with one of our scientists in the moon base if the initial scans are encouraging."

Liz beamed. Max smiled with her, taking her hand, and squeezing it.

"OK," Max said. "I'm in."

"Excellent." Thor said.

"How do we do the preliminary tests?"

"Place your hand on the lighted panel there," Thor pressed a button on his chair and a panel near Max lit up. He placed his hand on the panel, and a beam of energy scanned from one side to another over his hand, and then he felt a tiny pinprick in his wrist.

"That will be sufficient," Thor said. "The initial analysis will be done in a few minutes."

"Minutes?" Liz asked. "The best computers on earth would take weeks."

"We're not on earth," Jack said with a smirk.

"Touche," Liz said, returning his grin.

"So if the computer says yes, then what, you just set up a base on the moon and run cloning experiments?"

"Yes, that's the general idea," Thor said. "Two of our best scientists are awaiting these results and the data to begin setting this plan in motion."

"Wow, you guys like to work fast," Max said.

"The future of my people depends on this," Thor said simply.

The computer beeped.

"The initial results are encouraging," Thor said.

"Just like that?" Max asked.

"Just like that." Jack said.

Liz was grinning from ear to ear. "I can't wait to get started."

"I will return you now," Thor said, "The research vessel will take approximately seven hours to arrive. They will collect you when they are ready to begin their research on your moon. It was a pleasure to meet you, Max Evans and Liz," Thor said.

With that, they both disappeared in a flash of light.


	14. Bring on the Night Part 4

* * *

Chapter 14 - Bring on the Night (Part 4)

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Author's Note:

WOW! I have had almost as many reviews since I put up this last chapter as I have from the previous twelve chapters combined. Some of you have started to read for the first time since then, and have been devouring the whole series. So here's what I'm going to do. I've been working on writing another story, but I'm going to abandon that for now until this is finished. And, I'm going to commit to writing a new chapter at least every week. They may come more frequently sometimes, but at least one new chapter a week.

Also, a few people have called me on a few discrepancies. As far as the alternate universe goes, the only thing really non-canon about the timeline is that I got the year wrong when I calculated it. As a result, in my universe, the dates are a little mixed up for the different 'verses. Although Buffy actually ended in 2003, the date is 2004. All events happened in chronological order as canon, the show simply started a year later. We're about on-track for season 7 of SG-1 though. However, the Roswell timeline is actually several years _early_ as Roswell ended in 2005, and this is set two years after the end of Season 3 of Roswell.

Explanation of canon: As far as I could, I tried to keep everything canon right up until the beginning of season 7 of Buffy near the point where the Roswell gang meets the scoobies. After that, anything could have changed. Minor changes: Anya never returned from being a vengeance demon again, since the Roswell gang arrived right after Help, and they had a lot going on and didn't really experience what happened during 'Selfless'... so Anya just got back into the Vengeance game with a vengeance, so to speak, and is out of the picture. The First, being Evil incarnate, is everywhere, and thus has no trouble making deals with Ba'al. Yes, Max and Liz are married. Obnoxiously happily. Jesse isn't in the picture anymore - at the end of Roswell season 3, Isabel and Jesse actually broke it off just before Isabel left on the road trip with the rest of the gang. So when she meets Xander, she's been single for two years.

Somebody requested this and I kept forgetting to put it in, so without any further ado:

* * *

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

The Original Scoobies

--

Buffy Summers - the Slayer

Dawn Summers - mystical Key and Buffy's little sister

Alexander Harris - Human, recently Hybridized by Max

Willow Rosenberg - Human Witch

Rupert Giles - Human Watcher

Spike - aka William the Bloody - Vampire, in possession of The First

Robin Wood - new Principal of Sunnydale High

Andrew Wells - Human captive of the Scoobies

--

The Roswell Gang (New Scoobies)

--

Max Evans - Antaran Alien Hybrid - former king of Antar

Liz Parker Evans - Human, Hybridized by Max

Isabel Evans - Antaran Alien Hybrid - former princess of Antar

Michael Guerin - Antaran Alien Hybrid - former Antaran general

Maria DeLuca - Human, recently Hybridized by Max

Kyle Valenti - Human, Hybridized by Max

--

The SGC

--

General George Hammond - Human, Commanding officer of the SGC. Reports directly to the President

Colonel Jack O'Neill - Human, Commanding officer, SG-1

Dr. Daniel Jackson - Formerly Ascended Human, Linguistics officer, SG-1

Major Samantha Carter - Human, genius, Science officer, SG-1

Teal'C - Jaffa, Combat specialist, Goa'uld specialist, SG-1

Major Paul Davis - Public Relations Specialist, SGC

--

The FBI Special Unit

--

Agent Barnes - Goa'uld, possible member of the Trust

Agent Franco - Goa'uld, possible member of the Trust

--

The Asgard

--

Thor - Asgard, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet

Heimdall - Asgard, Scientist, genetics specialist

Loki - Asgard, Scientist, genetics specialist

--

The Goa'uld System Lords

--

Anubis - Ascended Goa'uld, using advanced technology to conquer territory

Ba'al - Goa'uld System Lord, empowered by The First

--

The Big Bad

--

The First - incorporeal malevolent force hellbent on, well, just Hell bent, really

Bringers - the first's minions. Formerly human, now mystically empowered slaves

Turok-han - ancient Vampires. Mindless killing machines

* * *

That's an awful lot to keep track of! Did I miss anybody? On with our story!

* * *

Buffy opens the kitchen door and walked in, engaged in conversation with Giles. "...the others just yet. It'll give us a chance to-" she stopped, seeing the other girls currently filling up the kitchen.

Kennedy swallowed her spoonful of cereal as Buffy came in. She smiled sheepishly at Buffy. "Sorry about the British Invasion," she said.

"We've been up for hours," Molly said as she spread jam over her toast.

"4p.m. London time," Anabelle explained. She then took a sip from her mug full of tea.

"Are you all right?" Kennedy asked. "You look..."

"Oh. Yeah," Buffy said. Giles and Michael entered behind her and she shut the door. "I'm OK. I just got into a fight is all." The girl nodded as Buffy looked to Giles and added, "You want to tell me with what?" Taking of her coat, she hung it on the hook by the door, and the turned again to Giles, waiting for his explanation.

The Watcher took off his glasses and began to polish them nervously. "Yes, Buffy, but don't you think we should, uh, discuss this... privately?"

"You mean, not in front of the next generation? It's no time to coddle them, Giles. Welcome to the war room, guys."

Anabelle fished for a moment in her pocket. She came up with a notebook and flipped it open, then clicked her pen and got ready to write. Kennedy responded by rolling her eyes.

"Uh, what you fought was a vampire, but it was, um, something more than that," Giles explained. "It was a Turok-Han. As Neanderthals are to human beings, the Turok-Han are to vampires. Primordial, ferociously powerful killing machines, as single-minded as animals. They are the vampires that vampires fear. An ancient and entirely different race and, until this morning, I thought they were a myth."

"So, The First shows up, and now this? You think it's a coincidence?" Buffy asked, knowing his answer, but wanting to hear him say it.

"I think it's more likely that the Turok-Han is here as an agent of The First."

"Um," Anabelle cut in shyly. "D-did you slay it?"

"No," Buffy sighed, "it's still out there, somewhere."

"What's it want?" The question came from Molly this time.

"All of us dead." Buffy was tired from a night without sleep, and it was showing. "But for now it looks like sunlight is keeping this UberVamp away."

"So, until sunset, I suggest you get some rest. A few hours sleep will do a world of difference."

"No sleep today. Can't."

"Oh, come on, you're exhausted," Michael complained.

"Ah, it comes with the gig. Somehow I don't think taking on prehistoric evil comes with nap time." She rolled her eyes at the overprotective boys and turned to address the other girls. "Sorry, Potential guys. I know you came a long way, and you wanna get into it, but the best thing you can do right now is just sit tight, wait it out. I'm gonna go to work, see what I can find out. I'll be back before sunset."

"How do you plan to research something as ill-defined as The First?"

"I have the best plan ever!" Buffy said.

At that point, Max and Liz appeared in the kitchen in a flash of light. Liz had a grin from ear to ear.

"Welcome back," Buffy said, hugging Liz.

"Maxwell," Michael said, saying hello in the stoic, guy way.

"Michael." Max returned.

"You're very smiley," Buffy said. "You didn't join the thousand-mile-high club, did you?"

"No," Liz said. "I'm going to do genetic research with help from aliens and their advanced technology."

"Wow," Buffy said, taken aback. "You sure get a lot done in fifteen minutes."

* * *

The others began to get up. Kennedy had arranged the sleeping arrangements to sleep with Willow, but the Potentials had already been up for hours. Willow got out of bed, and went into the bathroom. Dawn followed, going to the sink to wash her face and wake up a little before brushing her teeth to get dressed. Buffy was already occupying the shower, since she had to get ready for work. All the girls in this house sharing a bathroom... and it was going to get worse. Willow reminded herself to ask Xander to see if they could get another bathroom installed.

As they all went about getting ready for their day, Dawn was annoyed that she had to go to school while the other girls didn't. _Of course_, she thought to herself, _at least this time **I'm** not the one with a big target on me._

After everybody had had their breakfast sorted out, they all went their separate ways. Buffy drove Dawn to school, the greater part of the Roswell gang got into the van to return to the motel, and Xander and Kyle, who'd been hired by Xander weeks before, went to work.

* * *

"So you slept with her, huh?" Kyle asked Xander as he tightened a screw with the power drill in his hand.

"Yeah," Xander said. "Michael got really upset with me."

Kyle. "He's protective. Plus, in his last life, he used to be married to Isabel."

"I see. They never..."

"Not in this life," Kyle said. "They're more like brother and sister than anything else."

"Whew," Xander said, relieved.

Kyle gave him a wry grin. "Don't worry. I'm sure that right now, Isabel is telling Liz and Maria all about it, giggling like a schoolgirl."

"You really think so?" Xander asked.

"No."

* * *

Buffy sat at her desk. She was currently engaged in a phone call with Willow. She paused talking to take a swig from the large cup of take-away coffee next to her computer's keyboard. Buffy stared blankly at the screen which showed Google, and the cursor currently following the word 'evil' blinking like a good little cursor. She hit the enter key.

"Yeah, well, I already re-checked the basement," she told Willow over the phone. "Wait, you know, hold on, I'm gonna try something." She typed in something else, and hit enter again. "Maybe The First isn't ready for modern technology." She signed as Google came back. "Displaying results 1 through 10 of 900,517. OK, I gotta narrow this down. I'll call you back?" She nodded at whatever Willow said next. "Yeah."

Robin Wood walked out of his office, and peered over Buffy's cubicle wall, trying to catch her eye. "Manifestations of evil?" He watched as Buffy continued to type into the search field... "In... the... movies." He looked askance at Buffy. "You're searching for evil movies?"

"Uh, I know it's not the all-time most kosher use of my office hours, um, but, you know, looking at some down time. And what can I say, I just love those evil, evil movies. Like Exorcist, you know, Blair Witch..."

Wood almost snickered. "Hmm. As opposed to Rob Schneider's Oeuvre."

"Different kind of evil." Buffy smiled innocently.

"Yeah." Wood took a serious tone, and gathered his best Mike Brady Lecture face. "Buffy, you know, I'm not that big a fan of scary movies, even the hokie ones. Sometimes they go to a place that I think kids could stand to avoid." Wood pulled the chair in front of her desk out and sits down. He rests his elbows on her desk.

"Well, it's not for the kids." she replied.

Wood stared through her eyes, drilling right into her. "Yeah, yeah... I'm only saying that once you see true evil, it can have some serious after burn, and then you can't unsee what you saw. Ever. That's just one opinion. I better get back to work." He stood up and adjusted his jacket, then turned to walk back into his office.

"What kind of movies do you like?" Buffy called after him.

Wood smiled, and answered without even turning around to look. "Oh, me? Mysteries... I love finding out what's underneath it all at the very end." And with that he disappeared in his office.

* * *

The cave was, as always, dark, dimly lit. Turok-Hans didn't like light, nor did the First. It was dank, but at least it was well hidden. Drusilla was looking over Spike, who was strung up for her amusement.

"Think of it as a game. A fun, funny game. Without all the rules, or any of the bothersome winning part." She cooed. Anything Drusilla said sounded loopy, but The First made it sound even more sinister somehow. "But still, there are sides," she said, touching his nose, then pointing at his chest. "You have to choose a side, Spike. Then we can fly... be free and visit all our friends as they come squirming up from out the earth!" She started dancing in glee. "I know you like a good wriggle and a giggle and a squiggle..."

"You're... not... Drusilla." Spike managed to say, reminding himself.

"No, I'm really not." With that simple declaration, she reminded him just how much more dangerous she could be than the real Dru.

"She was crazier than you." Spike mumbled out.

"Ooh, daddy. No kicking! It's almost Christmas day today and you've gone spoiling it! I've been so very good all year..." she moved inches from touching Spike's nose with her own, and a low, playful growl came out of her."But I could be bad if you like."

Spike turned his head away from her so he didn't have to look at the First wearing Dru's face. The Turok-Han punched his face, turning it back toward her.

"Bad daddy! Needs a caning. Never learned his headmaster's lesson while all the school bells ring" She mimed ringing a bell, and went off on one of Dru's crazy tangents. "...and ring and ring and ring and ring..." She suddenly bent in to whisper in his ear in a soft, seductive voice. "Choose a side. Choose our side. You know that it's delicious." She made to lick his face, but never actually touched him. "What do you say?"

Spike's eyes rolled to peer into hers conspiratorially. "Dru, luv..." he whispered.

"Hmm?" She grinned.

"Get bent," he forced out.

Dru stood up, pouting angrily. "Stupid, stubborn daddy."

Dru turned her back, holding her hands over her heart. The UberVamp continued to pummel Spike to an ever-more-bloody conclusion. With each punch and kick, Dru gyrated in time, relishing the violence of it.

"Ringing, ringing, ringing..." she mumbled to herself.

* * *

Xander was putting the finishing touches on the living room window. Dawn and Willow were in the chest behind the couch, selecting weapons for everybody. Dawn bit her lip, They hadn't seen the Roswell gang since they left that morning. They were all supposed to meet back here at sundown, and they were late. Giles had worn a path in the living room rug.

"This day's almost over." A glance at his watch confirmed that he was allowed to worry. "And the sun will go down in 17 minutes."

Xander noticed the desperate looks on the faces of the Potentials. "Hey, junior slayers, don't look so worried. I mean, sure, we don't know where Spike is, or how to fight The First, or if and when the super style vampire is gonna attack us all. However, house:" he tapped on the boarded up windows to demonstrate, "...boarded up. Now all we gotta do is trap this UberVamp in a pantry, and it's game over."

Willow gave Xander a reproving look. "Xander, newbies! Let's ease them in to the whole 'jokes in the face of death' thing."

"Who's joking? That pantry thing could work. Are you saying M. Night Shamalayan lied to us?"

Buffy turned to the Potentials, and smiled at them reassuringly. "You'll be OK."

Willow grabbed a mace from the chest, and turned to add her two cents. "OK, or even better. It's like our guarantee!"

Turning to Buffy, the witch continued, "Um, Buffy, I just, I want you to know that I'm really sorry for letting you down. You know, here before with the magic going all _aah_ and me going all _eeee_ and everything getting all _rrrr_. I wish I could help out."

"No one expects you to make everything right," the Slayer said offhandedly.

"So, I can't do everything," Willow agreed, "but I should at least be able to do something! I have so much power, but when I try to use it..."

"Don't, OK?"

"OK. But, you need help, Buffy. I know you, and I know you'll never admit it, but you need help."

"I'll be OK. OK, or better. It's like my guarantee." the blonde said with a small smile.

Kennedy walked up to Willow and Buffy, and defiantly interrupted with, "Hey, are we getting weapons? Trained fighters? Patton is coming? I've heard worse ideas..."

Anabelle, ever the brown-nose, said, "We'll be armed when the Slayer feels we're ready."

"I feel ready." Molly mumbled.

"You're frightened. You must learn to control your fear," Anabelle said to Molly patronizingly.

Kennedy answered Anabelle. "Hey, you know what would help with that?" She turned to Buffy pointedly. "Weapons!"

"Uh, I don't know about that..." Buffy said.

"We're sitting ducks without them!" Kennedy complained.

"We're with the slayer. Safe as houses!" Anabelle reminded her.

"Do you see the house we're in?" Kennedy snapped.

Anabelle suddenly looked very frightened. "It'll come straight for us, won't it?"

Buffy considered for a moment. "We should load them up, Giles." she said.

"Where the hell are the others?" Buffy asked.

* * *

Andrew sat tied to his chair. As Xander passed through the dining room, he started talking as though Xander was listening to him.

"Listen to me, man, I've got a bad feeling about this!" Andrew cried.

"Of course you've got a bad feeling, dude. You're-you're tied to a chair." Xander deadpanned.

"No," Andrew said, then reconsidered. "Yeah... but above and beyond that. I'm telling you that my spider-sense is tingling. This is gonna get hairy. I'm talking weird with a beard. Better untie me." He said, trying to suavely slip the last suggestion into the conversation.

"And that'll help us, how?" Buffy asked, still nervous about the Roswell gang's non-presence.

Andrew sighed, and looked up as he thought... and talked at about the same speed before any of the thoughts really got processed. "OK, I know what you're thinking. Andrew, bad guy. You think I'm a super-villain like Dr. Doom or Apocalypse or... or The Riddler. But I admit I went over to the dark side, but just to pick up a few things! A-and now I'm back. _I've learned_." He emphasized. "I'm good again."

"And when were you good before?" Buffy and Xander headed back into the living room.

"OK, technically, never. Touch," he called after them, struggling vainly with the ropes binding him to the chair at wrists, knees, elbows, and ankles. "But I'm like Vader in the last 5 minutes of Jedi with redemptive powers minus a redemptive struggle of epic redemption which chronicles..." He gave up on the ropes, and let out a very forlorn sigh. "These ropes itch," he mumbled.

At that moment, there was a knock on the front door. Dawn opened it, and Maria stood there, panting for breath and looking very, very disheveled. She'd been crying, sobbing as she waited for the door to open. "They got them all," she said.

"What?" Buffy's eyes bugged out.

"These two FBI agents were waiting for us at the hotel. They had some kind of stun guns, and knocked everybody out, and when I woke up, I was the only one left... Max, Liz, Kyle, Isabel, Michael... all gone!"

"Kyle..." Dawn whispered.

Xander looked down sadly, then up. "Any idea where they could have been taken?" he asked Maria.

"I only know about the White Room, I don't know where they'd take them around here." she said.

"Locator spell!" Dawn said, and ran off to get her spell kit.

"In the meantime, we've got an UberVamp to beat off," Buffy said.

Everybody looked at her.

"Eew," she said. "_So_ not what I meant. How are we doing on time?"

Giles checked his watch. "Sunset should be any minute now. Done everything we can. And don't worry, everyone here understands that you're calling the shots."

"I just hope I'm calling the right ones," she mumbled.

"You have all my faith. And they're depending on you..."

"Giles, that's not exactly what I needed to hear right now."

Just then, Molly ran back into the room from the kitchen, and interjected. "Guys? Annabelle split!"

Buffy looked at Giles, and Giles shook his head. He mouthed the words _already dead_. Buffy looked very sad, and made to go out after her. She went into the kitchen and grabbed her jacked, but Giles grabbed her arm. "Buffy... she chose to leave. If you go out the rest of us will be in grave danger. Stay here, with the people who believe in you. We all need you."

Buffy hated duty, but she was a slave to it. She nodded, and headed back into the living room with the others.

* * *

Author's Note:

This is all we get for Bring On the Night. This is the last bit of canon show. There have been so many divergences at this point that the whole rest of the story could happen completely differently. Hopefully I will give you a good ride. The ending of Season 7 always seemed a little bit Deus Ex Machina to me, with Angel dropping by with the amulet, etc. My story's going a different direction, and I have SO many ideas. The current arc is dealing with the HellMouth. It's going to be AFTER that that it REALLY takes off with dealing with The First, and her Goa'uld minion Ba'al... Stay tuned!


	15. Missing Persons

* * *

Chapter 15 - Missing Persons

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

"Oh, my head hurts," Michael complained.

He was answered a moment later by a non-specific groaning sound. It was female. Michael inspected it, and it turned out to be Liz. Where were Max and Isabel?

He looked around the room, if you could call it that, and found that there wasn't much of anything. Dirty off-white padded walls, a single padded door, and small air vents at the top. The room was slightly smoky, with a sickeningly sweet smell. Michael went over to Liz and helped her up.

"Liz! Are you OK?" The girl nodded, and inspected her surroundings. She went over to the door, stretched out her hand, and... nothing.

"The smoke. It's probably full of that drug that keeps us from using our powers." she said, looking very disheartened.

Michael nodded. "Where are Max and Isabel?" he asked. She shook her head.

"_Max_! _Isabel_!" she shouted. A moment later she heard Max's voice calling her name. "Max! Where are you?"

"_We're in the next cell down; __Me, Kyle, and Isabel_," Max's faint reply came. "_The padded walls muffle a lot of the sound._"

Liz sat against one padded wall and slid down, depressed.

"What now?" Michael asked. "Do we just sit down and wait to be dissected, or maybe rescued?"

"I'd say the others would come after us. Maria's not with us, maybe they didn't take her, not figuring she was important. If she got away, Buffy will be along."

Michael actually smiled.

"What's so amusing?" the brunette asked him.

"Xander's going to be so angry when he finds out somebody kidnapped Isabel."

"Yeah. What's so funny about that?"

"They won't like him when he's angry..." Michael grinned.

* * *

They all sat at the briefing room table. George looked down the table at his top team. He sighed. "We have reports from the Tok'ra and Free Jaffa spies that Ba'al is obliterating the forces of Anubis at every turn. It's like he knows exactly what Anubis is going to do, where he's going to strike, and be. Not only that, but we also have reports that Anubis has attempted to send assassins in to kill Ba'al, and they were shipped back to him in pieces, literally torn limb from limb."

Sam crinkled her face in disgust, and Daniel looked as though he might throw up. They'd seen people die before, by disease, by gunshot, blown up... mauled by animals even, but never torn limb from limb. Jack and Teal'c just waited for the General to continue.

"I've been ordered by the president to assist the Tok'ra and Free Jaffa in any way we can in containing Ba'al. That said, Jacob and Selmak have requested SG-1's assistance with a very special task. I'll let Jacob explain." George nodded to Jacob, who stood up and addressed them in his voice, rather than Selmak's.

"I've been given a unique window of opportunity to get into Ba'al's base of operations. Unlike most Goa'uld who prefer to make their headquarters mobile, Ba'al for some reason has chosen to make his stronghold on a planet; the planet Samakrah." Jacob gestured to his holographic display, and it showed a planet which from orbit was half dark, half light. "Samakrah is unique in that it's the only life-supporting planet we know of whose rotation exactly matches its revolution around its sun. That means that like our moon, one side is always dark, and the other always light. Ba'al has made his base on the dark side of Samakrah. He hardly ever leaves that place, but we have reason to believe that he is secretly traveling to Earth for some reason we haven't been able to discover."

Jacob went on to explain how although it wouldn't be left undefended, Ba'al was expected to take most of his personal guard with him aboard his Ha'tak, and it would be the best chance they had to sneak in and look around.

"We've never been able to get an agent on Samakrah. Ba'al is extremely good at ferreting out spies. We hope, that with him not there, we'll be able to get in, get some valuable information, maybe even blow the place up. But as it's extremely unusual for a Goa'uld to make his home in a fixed location like that, especially with the human population being so sparse on Samakrah, that there must be something special about the place, and we want to know what it is," he finished.

"You say it's always dark on the side of the planet his base is on? There are no days, no natural light at all?" Daniel asked.

"There are some naturally light-producing fungus and insects, but no sunlight. The light side of the planet is teeming with vegetation, but we haven't been able to do much of a study of the dark side, there are too many Jaffa patrols." It was Selmak who answered this time.

"Sounds like a golden opportunity," Jack said, "But it also sounds like suicide."

"I agree Jack," Jacob said, "But unfortunately, we don't have a choice in this. Whatever leg up Ba'al has on his competition, I'll wager it's there on Samakrah. And if we don't find out what it is so we can develop a way to neutralize it, he'll steamroll the whole galaxy. Even Earth."

"The Asgard wouldn't allow that," Sam said. "The Protected Planets treaty..."

"Has already been proven ineffective by Anubis. His technology allowed him to stand toe-to-toe with the Asgard. And if Ba'al is tearing through Anubis like this, well, I don't know if the Asgard will be able to help us much. Earth has no real defenses," George said, "so our only option is a preliminary strike. Your orders are to go in there with Jacob, and find whatever information you can about how Ba'al has gotten the upper hand in this conflict."

"Yes, sir." Jack said unenthusiastically.

"Hey we've snuck in and out of Goa'uld strongholds before," Daniel said. "What could go wr... ow!" Daniel looked at Teal'c, who pretended he had not just hit Daniel in the back of the head, and instead looked evenly at Jack, who nodded his thanks.

"You know better than that, Daniel," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

* * *

Willow, still scared to use magic, was just observing as Dawn did the locator spell herself. Dawn scattered her sand over a map of the US, and it began to glow brightly around the San Francisco area. "San Francisco.." she said to herself. She flipped through the atlas for a closer map of the San Francisco area, and began the ritual over again.

Buffy paced back and forth, more and more nervous that the UberVamp would show up. Maria paced with her worried about the pod squad. The two of them zig-zagging past each other was dizzying to watch and Giles was trying very hard not to look, but as there wasn't much else to do, his eyes kept getting drawn back to the two girls, as did the eyes of everybody sitting on the couch and doing nothing but waiting.

"I would have thought it'd be here by now," Kennedy said. "Why's it waiting?"

"Maybe it's full after Anabelle," Molly said glibly. Kennedy looked at her in horror. "What?" she asked.

"Molly, Anabelle was our friend... a fellow Potential," Kennedy said.

"No," Molly said angrily. "She was a bleeding git who abandoned her friends when they need her the most and went off and got herself killed."

Kennedy didn't know what to say to that, she was feeling some of it herself, and if Anabelle were here, she'd be the first one to call her on her stupidity. But Anabelle was gone, and now the Three Amigos were short a man. Or, girl. She sighed and inched her way toward Willow. "Penny for your thoughts," Kennedy said.

"I'm jealous," Willow said, looking at Dawn.

"Don't be," Kennedy said. "You're hotter."

Willow blushed and smiled a little. "No, I mean, that she can do magic, and she doesn't have to worry about going all 'rrrr'."

"You don't have it in you to be evil, Willow." Kennedy said.

"Hey!" Willow said, "Already almost ended the world, here!"

"You were grieving," Kennedy said. "We all have rough patches."

"Yeah, but most peoples' rough patches don't cause them to make with the flaying," the redhead replied.

Kennedy turned Willow to face her, and put one finger over her lips. "Shh.." the Potential said. "You are the kindest, gentlest person I've ever known. You were grieving because you'd just lost your love. But that's over now. You've spent so much time coming to terms with your magic."

"But I've got so much inside me and what if it's too much for me to handle?" the witch asked in a small voice.

"Then, you've got me." Kennedy smirked at her. "And as much as the magic's inside you, Willow, you're stronger than it. And if you don't feel strong enough, lean on me."

Willow blushed again, and took Kennedy's hand, and squeezed it a little.

Just then, Dawn scattered her sand over the map of San Francisco, completing the ritual. She peered down at the writing under the little glowing dot.

"Alcatraz," Dawn said. "They're in Alcatraz!"

"Wow," Xander piped up. "I'm dating a jailbird. I guess it's about time we went and unclipped their wings."

Buffy nodded. "Let's all go," she said. "If we split up, the UberVamp could kill us."

The plan agreed upon, they went and gathered their things for a trip to San Francisco.

* * *

The padded door opened suddenly. Michael stood up to defend himself, but two men with black tattoos on their foreheads came into the room and faced him down. One of them knocked Michael out efficiently with a stroke to the head from his long staff.

"Michael!" Liz shouted, getting up. She shrank into the corner as the two men came for her. She knew that without her powers she didn't really stand a chance against them, so she didn't try to resist, and instead concentrated on remaining as alert as possible to learn more about where they were being kept.

The two men each took an arm, and escorted her out through the halls. She wasn't on some alien ship as she'd feared, but in a human-built structure, which looked like some sort of prison or high-security mental hospital. She was led through a maze of corridors, and paid attention to commit each turn to memory. They soon ended up at a dark, slightly rusted steel door.

One of the men knocked on the door with his staff. It opened to show a room with table. There were several other men standing around inside, a few with the black tattoos on their forehead. One of them had a gold tattoo. And there were two human men in off-the-rack suits that positively _screamed_ F.B.I.

"Place her on the table," Franco said. Liz knew that as soon as she hit that table, something would happen, and it would be exceedingly unpleasant. So she did what she could, she started kicking and screaming. She actually managed to break away from one of the men in her thrashing, and turned to kick the other one hard in the balls.

However, all she got for her trouble was a toe impacting on a hard metal surface. The man smiled at her, and threw her down on the table, where four other men began tying her limbs.

"What do you want?" she screamed. "What are you going to do with me?"

Franco said in a deep, oddly modulated tone, "We simply want your body. We're going to borrow it for the rest of your life. From now on, you will become immortal."

"Im..."

Franco and Barnes were furious as she suddenly disappeared in a flash of light.


	16. Scattered Molecules

* * *

Chapter 16 - Scattered Molecules

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Buffy and gang arrived in San Fran and wasted no time heading down the hill to the waterfront. They discussed the plan - to join the next tour group through Alcatraz. Given the time of their arrival, by the time they got there they'd be doing the Night Tour.

Willow was worried about Xander. He hadn't so much as cracked a joke the whole way here, and that was patently unlike him. Six and a half hours on a road trip with a surly Xander was a very bad thing. Buffy and Dawn had noticed it too, but all attempts to comfort Xander were casually brushed aside by the distracted boy.

The mini-van Xander had scrounged from his Uncle Rory was packed to the gills and very uncomfortable with Buffy, Dawn, Giles, Xander, Maria, the two Potentials, Willow, and Andrew. The van was only designed to fit seven, really, Dawn and Molly were sitting on the floor. Buffy really hoped they didn't get pulled over by a cop. Even if he didn't book them for the two girls not having seatbelts, Andrew, tied and gagged on the floor in the cargo area behind the back seat was sure to raise some eyebrows.

At least the Uber-vamp was unlikely to attack them here, although it had probably destroyed their house in Sunnydale by now.

"We're here," Xander said stoically. He was in soldier-mode. Serious, get-the-mission-done, rescue-my-girlfriend mode.

'Quite," Giles said. "We go by boat from here."

Dawn bounced out of the minivan and stretched her legs, and Molly did the same. Kennedy scooched out, followed by Willow, and the rest of them tumbled out shortly after.

"MMMmph! MMmp mphmph mph!" Andrew protested as they closed the door with him still in the car. _Oh well,_ Andrew thought. _At least they didn't leave me at home..._

The scoobies paid for their tour and were told it would leave in half an hour. Giles thanked the woman at the ticket counter, and they settled in for a rousing game of Hurry Up and Wait.

* * *

"...going to be... what?" Liz finished.

"Greetings, Liz Evans of Earth," came from a small alien behind her.

She turned around, and waved. "Er, hi," she said shyly. "I guess you already know who I am... who are you?"

"I am Heimdall. This is my assistant Loki. We've set up this facility on the far side of your moon to work on the problem of our deteriorating DNA."

"Hi, Loki, Heimdall. It's nice to meet you. How did you find me?"

"Thor's beam had your DNA pattern stored. He gave it to us so we could find you and bring you here as per the agreement."

"I have a favor to ask... my friends are being held against their will. Is there any way you can transport them here?"

"Certainly. Do you know their DNA pattern?" Heimdall asked.

"I... well, last time, Max said they just scanned for alien life."

"Yes, we have the ability to do that, but it will take some time. Without a specific pattern to lock on to, we will have to localize the search to the area around where you were found. Our long-range sensor suite is extremely limited in comparison to that of a cruiser, and not designed for this. We could call the _Daniel Jackson_ back here within a few hours, if necessary."

Liz was disheartened at this. She thought for a minute. "Wait... Max!"

"You refer to Max Evans?"

"Yeah, he gave a DNA sample, so you should be able to generate his pattern. He should be relatively close to the location where you found me!" Liz exclaimed.

"We will do what we can," Loki assured her.

Liz bit her nails for a few minutes while Heimdall played with his computer controls.

"Um, also, could I make a telephone call?" She asked nervously.

"Certainly," Loki said. "Our communications equipment can patch into your planet's radio system. What designation?"

Liz rattled off the number of Maria's cell phone, and Loki punched it into his console.

She waited until she heard the familiar ring, and then heard a voice. "_Hello?_" Maria asked.

"Maria!"

"_Liz? What did the kidnappers give you one phone call?_"

"No, Maria, it's hard to explain. Listen, we've been taken, we're being held in some old prison or mental hospital..."

"_Alcatraz. Dawn tracked you. How did you get to a phone if you're in a cell?_"

"I'm not, I'm on the moon."

Maria sounded a little annoyed. "_The moon. How the heck do you expect us to rescue you from the moon?_"

"No, I don't need rescuing here. Everybody else is in the prison, it's just me on the moon. I had.. a prior arrangement."

"_We're at Alcatraz right now. It's so creepy,_" Maria shivered. "_The whole gang's here, and we'll get them out. But when this is over, you are SO explaining to me how you got on the moon._"

At that moment, Max materialised in the now-familiar flash of light heralding an Asgard transport beam.

"Goodbye Maria."

"_Bye, Liz._"

With that, Maria hung up. Liz assumed Maria would inform them of what was going on, and she turned to tend to Max, who was shirtless, and had lacerations on his chest. "Oh my god, Max!"

"They tried to torture me," Max said. "But they'd just started... I'll be OK, the cuts are shallow, more painful than damaging."

"Greetings, Max Evans. I wish we had met under better circumstances," Heimdall said. "I am Heimdall, and this is my assistant Loki."

"Can you get the others out?"

"We have already explained to your wife that we cannot without knowing their DNA pattern. Our sensors are limited, as they are mostly internal, and an early-warning system pointed away from Earth to scan for hostile ships."

"What if I were, say, touching them?"

"That could be sufficient, as we could lock on to your pattern and return any associated mass. However, you were not with any others of your kind."

"If you send me back, I can go and get samples from them," Max said.

"Actually, Max, Buffy and the Scoobies are already breaking into the prison where we were held as we speak."

"I guess I'll leave it to them, then," Max said as he collapsed, his sense of duty no longer sustaining him through his fatigue since he now knew somebody he trusted was on the job.

"Max!" Liz was at his side in an instant, and she checked his pulse and breathing." He's just asleep. He's got to be exhausted from the blood loss and his adrenaline's wearing off. Buffy will get the others out safely," Liz said. At least, she hoped.

* * *

"Gaah!" Barnes said. "Are they all going to just disappear just as we begin to interrogate them?"

"That looked like an Asgard transport beam," Franco said. "We will have to move the prisoners if the Asgard are helping them to escape."

"Well, even if we had a Ha'Tak it wouldn't save them from an Asgard beam. We will just have to work faster. Begin implanting all the others immediately," Barnes ordered the nearest Jaffa. The guard banged his chest with his fist in salute, and then turned and left.

"We WILL have their bodies for ourselves," Franco said.

Barnes nodded. "Very, very soon."

* * *

The Scoobies, slightly reassured by Liz's phone call, headed deeper into the prison. They'd left the tour group and been found by one of the security guards, but Maria's new gift came in handy and she sweetly asked him to leave them alone. The whole group was surprised when she did.

"Whoa," Dawn said. "I want to be able to do that." She turned to Maria. "Why can't I do that? My boobs are as big as yours!"

"Dawn!" Buffy snapped. "Inappropriate!"

"It's something to do with what happened and how I changed when Max healed me. I haven't learned to use the 'usual' powers yet, but I seem to have developed a special gift for persuasion."

Kennedy glanced at Maria and then Dawn to examine their boobs.

"Sweetie, staring," Willow said amusedly. Willow would have blushed if caught like that, but Kennedy just shrugged.

"Dawn's right though," Kennedy whispered back.

Willow then did blush. "I know," she added, taking Kennedy's hand possessively.

Just then, a group of strange men wearing gold... well, somethings... walked by the end of the corridor. One of them spotted the group, and they set about aiming their staffs down the long hall in an orderly fashion. The scoobies dove for cover as the energy staffs let off blazing orange bolts of light.

"What I wouldn't give for a lightsaber and the Force right now," Xander said.

"Hey," Buffy reminded him, "You've got me!" With that, Buffy took off down the corridor, dodging the bolts and flipping off the walls with all the skill and grace a slayer could want.

By the time she reached the end of the corridor, Dawn had already started chanting a protection spell. It wasn't very effective at shielding them from the incoming fire, Dawn wasn't used to casting spells like this on the fly. However, it did manage to turn the bolts a few degrees away from the center of them which was helpful when a bolt heading for Xander's heart instead hit his left arm.

Xander grabbed the wound in pain. It wasn't bleeding, having been cauterised by the searing heat of the energy bolt, but it stank of burnt flesh and hurt like hell. His arm was practically useless, the muscle having been almost literally melted. Dawn moved to tend to his arm, grabbing his bad hand and keeping it still.

Buffy had no such protection, and after taking down all but two of the Jaffa, one finally got her in the back as she fought the other.

Buffy went down. Xander screamed, and flung out his still-good arm towards the guards. His hand crackled with a massive amount of light green electricity and the Jaffa went flying backwards into the wall, hard enough to put a hole in it. It took a moment for the surprise to wear off of the scoobies, but Xander looked down at Dawn. Did she just...

Having no time to worry about it as they knew the loud crash would attract more guards any second, the scoobies rushed forth to check on Buffy. She was breathing, and the bad burn in her right shoulder blade would heal fairly well due to Buffy's slayer nature. Slowly she got up, groaning. "Anybody get the number of that mack truck?" Buffy asked.

The dust settled and a startled Michael walked out of the hole in the wall. "Guys!" Michael said, "Max, Isabel, and Kyle are in the next cell down that way," he pointed off to the left, "And they took Liz. Our powers won't work for a while, they drugged us."

"Liz is safe," Maria said, running into Michael's arms. "I'm so glad you are too."

"What blew up the wall?" Michael asked.

"Xander got mad."

"I told Liz these guys wouldn't like Xander mad," he chuckled. They moved down to the next cell and Xander tried again top break down the wall, but nothing was happening.

"I can help," Willow said.

"Are you sure, Will?" Dawn asked. "Earlier you were scared something might happen."

"I'll be OK," Willow replied. "Ken will be here to hold my hand and keep me anchored."

"OK," Dawn said, "Then you're up."

Willow's eyes turned black as she gathered energy from the Earth. Suddenly, the door vaporised into a wisp of smoke, and the Scoobies rushed in to retrieve the other prisoners.

Xander rushed to hold Isabel, forgetting the pain in his newly-shot arm. He held her with his good hand, and they kissed each other longingly. Dawn watched, only slightly jealously, and then just as suddenly, rushed forward to hug Kyle. Kyle held her, and for an awkward moment, Dawn almost thought they would kiss. Then the others piled into a big group hug. Suddenly Liz appeared in a flash of light, and without a moment's delay or a single word, she joined the hug. Then the whole group vanished in a flash just as a group of very agitated Jaffa appeared in the doorway.

The First Prime swore. His gods would not like this at all.


	17. Fly Me To The Moon

* * *

Chapter 17 - Fly Me To The Moon

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

"Sweet merciful Zeus!" Xander exclaimed, looking at the little aliens.

"I believe you have us mistaken for somebody else. I am Heimdall, and this is Loki.", the closer of the two gray aliens said.

"The originals," Liz smiled.

Dawn's eyes widened. "Heimdall and Loki?"

"Good gods," Xander exclaimed.

"Exactly." Max said. "But really, they're aliens from a race known as the Asgard. We're in a base set up for me and more to the point Liz to help them research a possible cure to the degeneration of their DNA."

"What do you mean?" Isabel asked.

"Well, we never had time to fill you in, but Max and I were brought to see their Commander, Thor. He explained this all to us." Liz added.

"My people reproduce by cloning," Heimdall explained. "When our bodies are too old, we clone ourselves. We make a new body with our DNA, and then we download our memories and thought patterns into the new body. However, after centuries of cloning, our DNA is beginning to degenerate. And since we no longer have the ability to reproduce sexually, we are slowly dying out."

"That sounds like a bummer." Kyle smirked.

"You have no idea," Loki said, with an amused tone.

"In exchange for helping us with the research, Liz Evans will get to look more into the changes that have been made to her and study how the aliens' human forms differ from normal," Heimdall continued.

"Which is something I've been wishing I could do for like, forever," Liz said.

"Sometimes I forget how smart you are, you're always so quiet about it," Michael said.

Maria nodded. "She's the smartest person I ever met. Possibly excepting Willow and Dawn."

"What about Giles?" Xander asked. He'd always thought of the British man as the smartest man he knew.

"I am intelligent, Xander, but mostly well-educated. Willow, Dawn, Liz, they are geniuses."

"Yeah, and in Dawn's case, a certifiable pain in the butt, too." Buffy said.

"Hey!" Dawn whined, in a way that reminded all the original Scoobies of how she'd been when she was just becoming a teenager. Dawn was hardly ever prone to fits of annoyingness anymore. She'd taken up the fight very seriously, and been an exemplary Scooby lately.

"Well, who were those guys that kidnapped you?" Xander asked, looking straight at Isabel, but talking loudly enough for everybody to hear him and quiet down in anticipation of the question.

Isabel looked down, then up at Xander, then her eyes flicked to Max, pleading for him to help.

"They were F.B.I." Max said. "Special unit. They deal with alien threats."

"I was not aware that your government had yet another agency to deal with aliens, Max Evans. We have not come into contact with them before."

"With all this stuff going on with the First, we'd almost forgotten about them." Liz said. "They think their mandate is to deal with alien threats, but really, they're just investigating Max and the rest of us. You see, they uncovered evidence about the Roswell crash."

"The Roswell crash was a result of one of our ships going down. You see, once we had the answer to the very problem that plagues our people now." Loki said. "However, a group of terrorists hijacked the ship and took it away. They were a separatist sect who settled in this galaxy over a thousand years ago, and set up a kingdom spanning five stars. There was a civil war which decimated them. They cloned obsessively to replenish their numbers throughout the prolonged war. They also genetically engineered themselves at the same time, giving them greater powers and allowing them to become better soldiers and spies. This caused their DNA to degenerate much faster than the rest of our species. The leaders of the Royalist sect stole the four prototypes gengineered bodies and implanted them with copies of the thought engrams of their leaders. They were to be the leaders' replacement bodies, but we caught up to them before we could enact their plans. They escaped, however, fleeing to Earth. We shot them down in orbit and even tracked them as they fell, but our sensors and communications had been damaged in the fight. We never found any trace of their remains except spaceship debris."

"Whoa," Max said. "Talk about revelations. You mean, we're you? I mean, we're descended from you?"

"No," Heimdall said. "Your bodies are based on the Human template, but heavily modified. The terrorists destroyed the records and research relating to your creation, and the ones responsible for the project, so that they would have the only copy. They thought to barter with us for our newest technology with which to fight their war. We were not amused at being stolen from and then blackmailed, so naturally we refused their offer. We thought we could recover you."

"And now, at last, we have," Loki said.

"It will take time and research to reverse engineer your DNA and discover the processes that differ in you from us and from normal humans. But once we do, we will be able to run off almost a limitless combination of DNA patterns, make new bodies for ourselves, and then begin the long process of adjusting to sexual reproduction." Heimdall finished.

"But we have confidence that it can be done, with your cooperation," Loki added, almost trying to get the last word in.

"...Right." Isabel said.

"We need to get back to Sunnydale, though," Xander said. "The First could be doing almost anything while we're gone."

"I can transport you there via our beam, if you know its geolocation."

"1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale, California." Dawn said automatically.

"But at least one of us needs to get the van," Xander said.

"No," Max said. "Leave it. It may throw the F.B.I. off our trail."

"Sounds Reasonable," Giles agreed.

"So what's the plan then?" Buffy asked.

"I'll stay here." Liz said. "I can start the work. Willow may want to stay as well. She's having trouble with the magic, and perhaps being away from the Earth will help to alleviate the temptations."

Willow's eyes opened wider. "I can hardly feel the magic at all here.. it's like a kite on a mile-long string. It seems so tiny." She brightened up. It was a weight off of her shoulders. "I'd like to stay, if I can." Willow said.

"Certainly," Heimdall said. "We can provide sustenance for four as easily as for three."

"Excellent," Willow replied looking overjoyed.

"What if we need to get in touch with you?" Dawn suddenly asked. She would miss Willow who'd become almost a mother to her in the last few years.

"Do you have any devices you could give us to call you if we need to?" Max asked.

"Or, like a phone number?" Maria added.

They all looked at her. "What?" Maria asked. "You guys are aliens, and you still have cell phones."

"We use holograms to communicate," Heimdall said. "We will monitor the frequency and key of Liz Evans' mobile phone. When one of you tries to call her, we will contact you via hologram."

"Whoa, that's very cool," Xander said.

Loki bowed in thanks as though he'd invented the hologram himself.

Which, who knows, he might have.

"Let's go," Buffy said. "We have an ubervamp to deal with."

* * *

"What do we do now? We do not have the resources to fight the Asgard." Franco said.

"No, we do not. Fortunately, I have had word from our spies among the Tok'ra. Ba'al is rising against Anubis as we speak. We can forge an alliance with Ba'al, and then we may not need the creatures as hosts. We can gain our advantage through Ba'al's technology, which surpasses even that of Anubis." Barnes smiled greedily.

"Agreed," Franco replied. "Soon we will be free of this rock, and once again among the stars where we belong."

* * *

SG-1 were in Briefing Room 1, undergoing debriefing from their mission to Samakrah. They hadn't learned much, other than that there was an energy reading on the dark side of the planet similar to the one Sam had collected in Sunnydale. It was mostly deserted, the Jaffa patrols had been almost nonexistant. Almost as if Ba'al had simply picked up and moved, in the blink of an eye.

"So what we get out of this is that..." General George Hammond began. Before he could finish, he was interrupted by the appearance of a hologram of Liz Evans. "Excuse me, I hope I'm not interrupting anything," the shy girl began.

Daniel smiled. "Not at all, Liz. We were just finishing up."

"Hello, Liz Evans," Teal'c said with a nod to the pretty brunette. Sam echoed his hello, as did Jack.

General Hammond was getting annoyed. Jack noticed. "Oh, sorry, sir. This is Liz, Liz Evans, General George Hammond. How did you come by a hologram projector?" he asked.

"I'm at the moon base working with Heimdall and Loki on the Asgard's gene problem." she said simply. "I'm just checking in with you guys to let me know we're here, and to give you my phone number. If you call it at any time, we'll contact you by hologram."

"Did you say moon base?" Hammond asked.

"Yes, sir. On the dark side. It's cloaked. It's just a research station. I asked to be allowed to work with them since their gene research has direct corellation with mine, and I wanted to jump at the chance they offered me to make use of their amazing equipment."

Sam nodded understandingly.

"You don't look older than your early twenties, girl. How much do you know about alien DNA?"

"I've been studying it since High School sir.. and I'm excellent at biology." Liz replied.

"She's a freaking genius, sir. Carter-level." Jack said.

"Although her scientific expertise tends toward the chemical and biological whereas mine runs toward the physical and technological." Carter said, not really liking the comparison. She was the best in the world at what she did, and while she was happy for anybody else to be the best at what _they_ did, she didn't really want direct competition.

"Indeed." said Teal'c, raising an eyebrow at Carter knowingly. Carter started to blush.

Jack feigned ignorance. "Anyway, she's an alien, too. Although I'm still a little bit unclear on how that all works," Jack said.

"As I said," Liz reiterated, "We'll be continuously monitoring for phone calls addressed to my mobile number. If anybody calls me we'll get in touch with them via hologram. Heimdall wants me to tell you hello, Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter."

"Say hi for us, Liz," Jack smiled with his contagiously exuberant smile. He liked the little grey guys.

"My phone number's here," A piece of paper with Liz's phone number on it beamed onto the conference table. "Call if you need anything. Our beam transporters are limited because we don't have a full external sensor suite here, but we can lock onto gene patterns we have on record, which includes SG-1 and all of the Scoobies. Also, we can beam things to specific locations we know, such as the SGC, Buffy's house, etc. We have good space-pointing sensors for early warning though, so we should be able to give early warning against anything that isn't eclipsed by Earth's or the Moon's shadow."

"Permission to go to the Moon Base sir?" Carter asked.

"Granted, but only after debriefing." General Hammond said.

"Call me when you're ready to come, Carter." the brunette girl said.

With that, Liz's hologram blinked out, and George looked very thoughtful.

"Well now, that should be pretty useful," George said with a grin.

"Yeah, we always wanted the Asgard's phone number." Jack grinned back. 


	18. What Schemes May Come

* * *

Chapter 18 - What Schemes May Come

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

In the aftermath of the return from the moon base, it was Xander who remembered that Andrew had been left tied up in the back of the bus. Not out of any great worry for Andrew's well-being, but more for the fact that he reminded everybody that he couldn't leave the van; it was borrowed, and his uncle would expect it back.

So, the group split up. Xander, Dawn, Max, and Isabel chose to go back to the van and drive it back to Sunnydale. The others, minus Liz and Willow, were beamed back to Buffy's house to find it in perfect shape.

"You'd never know we were in the middle of an apocalypse," Buffy said.

"I guess the First was too busy hatching its nefarious schemes or something to bother with an empty house." Molly said.

"A fair assumption," Giles replied, "However, I think we ought to move about the house, in pairs, and make sure there aren't any bringers or anything stowed away in here where we think it's safe."

"Good idea, Giles. Michael, you go with Kennedy, Molly, you're with me. Giles and Kyle with Maria."

* * *

"So, Xander, what's it like having special powers, finally?" Dawn asked. She was feeling a little bit left out. Maybe she should, like, nearly die or something so Max would have to heal her. _Naah,_ she thought. _I'd only get lame powers like making a green spot on a wall, or something._

"Well," Xander thought about it, "I don't really know. Thing is, I've done stuff twice.. but both times it was just instinct. The second time it was a lot stronger, but I don't know what I did or how I did it either time. I haven't been able to do it on demand or do any of the other cool stuff the rest of our new Scoobies can do."

Dawn sighed. She was still a little jealous. Xander had been the only one left among the Scoobies who was just a normal human being like her. And then there was Isabel... who was strong, and smart, and insanely gorgeous... not to mention having all sorts of cool powers. She'd never be able to compete with Isabel. Isabel tolerated her crush because she was certain Dawn would never be a threat to her. Now, Dawn's last remaining connection to Xander, their shared normalcy, was gone. Although, Xander hadn't changed. He didn't treat her any differently. But she'd come to realize that he'd always treated her like a buddy. Like a sister.

Her thoughts turned to Kyle. He was about the same age, and really cute... the same kind of funny that Xander could be when he was being witty rather than goofy. Like Xander, Kyle had insight. And he saw Dawn differently to everybody else. She thought of him and sat back in her seat, contented.

Max added some advice, "If you want help developing your powers, you should talk to Liz. She knows the most about what happens when a human becomes one of us. It'll be interesting to see what unique abilities you show."

"Unique abilities?" Andrew asked. "Like, Darkseid's Omega Beam or, maybe Superman's solar-powered DNA..."

"Or maybe Grod's mind control." Xander said. Isabel shot him a questioning look. "I really have to stop letting him bait me like that,"

Isabel smiled. "It's a little cute, as long as you manage to stop yourself before you start to babble on too long..." she glanced back, where Andrew was continuing to list examples.

"Not like that," Max said. "We all have the capabilities to do everything the others can do. Completely unlocked human potential. The thing is, everybody's brain works differently, so there's usually something somebody figures out how to do that's new, and unique to the way their brain works."

"I see," Dawn said, "So although you could Dream Walk like Isabel does, you can't because you've never learned how, and Isabel figured it out because of how her mind works."

"Yeah." Max said. "Liz has studied it a lot more."

"Or Sarlet Witch's hexing power, or..." Andrew continued.

"Ugh!" Dawn said. "You know I love you guys, but I wish I'd remembered about Andrew being here before I volunteered for another six hours in a car with him."

"He's not so bad," Max said. "He just wants to be valued. And at the moment, the only thing he has is his mind. So he shows off his knowledge a little bit. He just doesn't know how else to relate to people."

"I never thought about it that way. That's sad," Dawn replied thoughtfully.

"Or maybe even Wonder Woman's magic lasso." Andrew finished.

"So sad," Isabel agreed.

* * *

It hadn't been long before Sam joined Willow and Liz on the moon base. Together, the triumvirate of geniuses had begun to work feverishly with the two Asgard. Heimdall seemed distinctly female somehow to Willow. Not because of any particular physical characteristics like one would find in humans, since Asgard physiology currently lacked such things, but rather feminine in demeanor. She (for we will now refer to Heimdall as a 'she' since establishing the predominant femininity inherent in her character) was quietly brilliant, unassuming, and nurturing. She was always quick to offer helpful suggestions where she saw they could be given, and happily accepted the input of the others.

Willow and Liz were coming to like Loki as well. The ancient Norse had named him a Trickster, and he did indeed keep them on their toes. This was a novelty for Sam, who had met Asgard before but never found one so open with its (or rather his) sense of humor. He seemed to have a great love of practical jokes, and an intensely curious nature. He was brilliant, and when it came to the work he was all business, but his humor kept the work feeling light, and their research progressed at breakneck speed.

* * *

Ba'al's mothership returned to Samakrah to find that his silent alarms had been triggered during his absence. Somebody must have alerted his enemies of his departure. Since only his inner circle knew the time and circumstances of his trip away, this could mean only one thing... there was a spy in his circle. He trusted only Goa'uld, and only those he had known for a long time. For one of them to have turned Tok'Ra traitor was a heavy blow.

He fetched Kralik, his Second Prime, and gave him a special mission. He would investigate the members of his inner circle, quietly, to try and ferret out any indication as to which might be the spy. He also said that the First Prime should be investigated as well.

He also said that he wanted the truth, not a scapegoat. It was important to find out which was the real spy. The spy you knew could be useful. Kralik would be promoted to First Prime if he could succeed in this mission and provide proof as to the spy's identity. Kralik saluted his god, and left to begin his mission.

"That was a good idea, selecting your second with the promise to promote him," The first said as it walked out from behind a pillar in the throne room. It was wearing Buffy's skin at the moment. "It'll make him ambitious to do the job rather than ambitious to damn your current First Prime."

"I'm not a fool," Ba'al replied. "You would not have chosen to come to me if you thought the contrary."

"True," Buffy/the First said. "Your kind fascinates me to no end. Such power, and yet always such a hunger for more."

"Ambition is the hallmark of my species," Ba'al said amused. "We were born to rule over another's body. But why should we stop with one? We always want them all."

Buffy/the First touched herself, running her hands down her body. "It makes me all tingly just to think about the sheer greed contained in you."

"I want to swallow the universe." Ba'al replied.

The First grinned with Buffy's dimpled face. "And thanks to me, you shall. Come with me, I have a present for you."

"With pleasure," Ba'al smiled cruelly and followed.

* * *

Buffy and the others hadn't been home more than a few hours when another four girls showed up with woman who was obviously a watcher. She must once have been very beautiful; even in her bedraggled state Giles found her rather fetching. She had bags under her eyes from spending the last few weeks on the run, her hair was pulled back into a ponytail whose ends had split nearly all the way up. She was without make-up and malnourished as well. Back home in England she would never have let anybody see her in this condition, but all the pomp and circumstance had been run out of her in a desperate attempt to survive and keep these four girls alive.

"They were all I could find," she said. "I was stationed in Europe. As soon as we figured out what was going on we told every remaining Potential to come here. These are the four I encountered on my way." The girls shuffled in out of the rain, and lined up in the foyer. The woman introduced them quickly. "These are Jenny, Vi, Rona, and Connie. Jenny and Connie are both from Ireland. In point of fact, they're cousins. Vi and Rona are both from the United States."

"I had been running from those Bringer guys for two days already when she found me," Rona said.

"And you are?" Giles asked, in that polite-yet-derogatory manner that only British people correcting bad manners can manage.

"Oh, heavens, forgive me. I've neglected to introduce myself. I am Rosalind Larkwood, one of those Watchers assigned to catalog Potentials. Probably the only one left." She reached out her hand and took Giles', curtsying slightly.

"Miss Larkwood, it is good to meet you. I am very pleased you've made it here, as this may be the only safe place there is, at the moment."

"Thank you, Mr. Giles," she said. "But if you don't mind we've all been running for a very long time, and I imagine there is nothing in the world any of us should like more than some food, a shower, and sleep... in that order."

"Come on, the Kitchen's this way," Kennedy said to the other girls. Miss Larkwood followed without another word.

"Wow.. four more in one day. Giles, how many are going to come? This house is going to get really crowded really quick." Buffy said.

"Yes, but we will need to gather everybody together if we wish to have a chance at surviving the coming storm, Buffy."

"I know you're right Giles. It's just... there are already so many girls here, and so few bathrooms..."

* * *

"...Take one down, pass it around, no bottles of beer on the wall!"

"Andrew!"

"Um, yeah Dawn?"

"Thanks for stopping."

"I can't believe I felt sorry for him three hours ago. He's a menace to public mental health," whispered Isabel to Xander.

"You don't have to thank me, Dawn. I was done. Once there are no bottles of beer on the wall..." Andrew replied to Dawn.

"..." Dawn had no response.

"How can you be so calm, Max?" Isabel asked.

Max didn't answer.

"Max!" Isabel said sharply.

However, Max was safely protected from the wonder of annoyance that was Andrew in a confined space by the buffer of sleep.

Or so it seemed. Isabel settled down to dreamwalk into Max's mind, and as soon as she got in there, she got out, and cackled with laughter.

"What's so funny, Isabel?" Dawn wondered aloud.

"Max is dreaming. In Max's dream, Andrew is singing that song, but going up, so he never reaches the end."

"I pity him," Xander said. "And that's saying something."

* * *

In due course, Xander and the others arrived back at Revello Drive. They managed to find sleeping arrangements for everybody, and settled into a routine of training and preparing. A week passed, and The First was disconcertingly quiet. There was no sign of the Ubervamp, which worried them all a lot. The First wouldn't just disappear from the hellmouth.

Into their second week, there were two dozen potentials, and sleeping room was down to crash space wherever on the floor it could be found. Giles and Miss Larkwood were increasingly worried that the First might simply be waiting until all the potentials were in one place to strike.

It was the end of the second week when all hell broke loose.

Well, not all hell. Just a small part of it.


	19. The Railroad Ties that Bind

* * *

Chapter 19 - The Railroad Ties that Bind

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry about missing a week. As a result, this update is extra-length! Many things will be revealed. Another clue to the mystery of Dawn, what is the First up to, and whatever happened to Spike?

* * *

"Thanks, Andrew!" Buffy said as she sat down at the table and the aforementioned geek plopped a huge stack of pancakes down in front of her. Andrew had actually been making himself very useful, and they were all learning to get along with him, more or less. He'd been sort of the house-mother to the baby slayers, cooking and arranging space for people. He liked to call himself the Director of Logistics, but Xander called him the PDL (Potentials Den Leader). In fact, it wasn't just Andrew. 1630 Revello Drive (or Slayer Central as it had been dubbed) was becoming a well-oiled machine.

Almost everybody had found a role and settled into it. The Potentials were being trained to fight. Kennedy had become their Sergeant - as the one with the most combat training, she was spending her time drilling it into the others. Slayers became very quickly combat proficient, and Potentials weren't much worse. All the girls were quick learners, and after two weeks of rigorous training, most could probably best most people who'd been taking martial arts classes for six months or more.

With Willow living on the Moon Base with Liz, Dawn had shifted into the role of "the witch". Buffy was none too happy about it, but she was too busy most of the time, either helping to train the Potentials or planning with Giles and Miss Larkwood. Dawn was handling all the magical necessities. While they all knew she had nothing like Willow's power, she was a very fast learner, and had an advantage over Willow in the language department. As a result, Dawn had begun to learn things even Willow hadn't yet, although she was holding a lot of things back because they frankly scared her. She wasn't sure she had the power to handle a lot of it, and had already classified a lot of it as 'last resort' kind of stuff.

The whole house had begun to feel that their time was quickly coming to a head, and feeling the crunch of impending apocalypse, there was a sharp upturn in interest in things romantic. People wanted to connect with somebody before the end. Xander and Isabel were going strong, Kennedy and Max spent almost every evening at the moon base visiting Willow and Liz... Michael and Maria, they had all become closer. Even Andrew had started to spend a lot of time with one of the older Potentials named Claire.

So it was that Buffy was feeling particularly lonely when she heard news, for the first time in months, of Spike.

* * *

Spike was hanging, still, over the Seal of Danthalzar. He was in a very bad way. He hadn't been fed enough, he was gaunt, even for him, and pale, even for a vampire. He hadn't seen the sky in almost a month, and the only time he was ever fed was when they felt like bleeding him again. They'd do something to him that made him black out, then when he woke up, he'd feel better. That is, until they cut on him till all his blood drained out again. And then the seal would open again, and another Ubervamp would come out. They'd released over a dozen already, though he never saw them. One came out at night, and then never came back.

The First had long since tired of taunting him, since he'd never broken. It/she had decided that he needed time to stew in the routine of daily torture.

Last week, though, it had shown up in the guise of Buffy to play its new game; Give Spike Hope. It would show up as Buffy, and pretend to be concerned, that it was there to rescue him. Several times he'd had to watch her die in the attempt as an Ubervamp showed up and ripped her to shreds.

Now, Spike was very tough, but even he had limits, and his reserves were just about gone.

* * *

"Are you sure it was Spike?"

"I saw him!" Dawn said. "He was necking a girl outside the Bronze. He looked... sick." Dawn had a perfect view in her head of what Spike looked like. He was... hot. This Spike was still good-looking, but he looked malnourished.

"What were you doing at the Bronze?" Buffy's eyes narrowed in a 'you're in trouble' look.

"It was an outing for the Potentials. I was just along for the ride! And, I was with Michael and Maria!"

Michael and Maria were currently oblivious to the world in the other room making out on the couch.

"I hardly think they're suitable chaperons," Miss Larkwood said.

"Hello!" Dawn said. "_totally_ beside the point. **Spike!**"

"Who's this Spike guy?" Max asked.

"Buffy's ex-boyfriend." Dawn said.

"He was never really my _boyfriend_..." Buffy protested.

"You almost married him, once," Dawn said.

"Totally not my fault!" Buffy said. "Willow did that!"

"Anyway, we're done for the day. I'm drained, and it's almost time for our beam-up," Max said, directing the last part to Kennedy, who smiled and ran upstairs to change for Willow. Max and the other members of the pod squad had been changing the inner walls and doors of the house into steel. It had been Michael's idea, and the others had been working on it steadily for weeks. It was almost completed. The bottom two-thirds of the house had been changed. Buffy had said that would suffice, but Michael had been adamant about wanting to complete it all the way up. Max had been impressed. The former General had a real drive to protect. It was one of the reasons he and Xander got on so well.

Buffy nodded and Max headed off upstairs.

"Anyway," Dawn continued. "What do we do about it?"

"Well, we have to rescue him." Buffy said.

"Buffy, didn't you hear what I said? Spike. Feeding. I was talking more like, 'how do we slay him so he doesn't become a pain in the ass while we're fighting the First.'"

Buffy sighed. "Look Dawn, we're going to need all the help we can get. Spike's strong, he can help us."

"Is he strong enough to kill an Ubervamp?" Xander asked curiously.

"Well, not as strong as an Ubervamp obviously," Buffy stated, "But a lot smarter, and a good fighter."

"I'm not sure about this, Buff," Xander replied. "But you're the boss. If you think we need him, then we'll find him and bring him back here, and ask him what the hell is going on."

"If he's been feeding at the Bronze, I can go look for him there."

"Whoa, Buffy..." Xander said. "Hold on. Nobody goes out alone. That's _your_ rule, so what's this _I_ stuff?"

"Well, it's Spike. I can handle Spike."

"Take Michael with you, at least." Buffy looked over at Michael and Maria, who were totally oblivious, and rolled her eyes.

"OK, maybe not Michael. What about Kyle?" Dawn supplied. "He's pretty good with stuff, and he doesn't know Spike, so he can act rationally."

"Fine," Buffy relented. "Get Kyle for me." she said, putting on her coat.

Dawn disappeared upstairs, and Kyle came down soon after. Kyle grabbed his coat, and they left.

* * *

Dawn sat in her room. Alone. The Potentials were still out back with Kennedy, the aliens were doing their various things, and Buffy and Kyle were out of the house. It seemed like it had been forever since she had any time alone. She went under her bed, and reached around for a book. She fished it out of the massive pile of detritus that hung out under her bed, and opened it on her bed. Going to the circular rug in the middle of her floor, she pulled it away to reveal a pentagram, and placed candles at each corner. She went over and locked the door, and then sat in the center of the pentagram. She performed a banishing ritual to clear her sacred space of outside influences. Willow had often neglected this step in her early days of being a witch, more concerned with the spells that did cool stuff rather than proper procedure. As a result, many of Willow's spells had gone wonky in the past. Dawn would not repeat those mistakes.

She lit the candles with her finger, the first bit of non-ritual magic she ever learned, and then she closed her eyes and began to chant in latin.

As she chanted, she smiled. Slayer Central was built on a ley line. Many of those lines crossed at the Hellmouth, but Sunnydale itself was one big magical nexus because of it. Not that she needed the extra power for what she was doing, since it wasn't anything _active_, but it was nice to be able to feel it. She basked in it. She knew that in this state of awareness, the magic was attracted to her, almost like she was absorbing it slowly. Very slowly. She sighed. She had done this every chance she had gotten over the last two months, and she was slowly catching up to the level of power Amy had before she turned herself into a rat. She was nowhere near Willow's league yet, and probably never would be. But she knew that every ounce would count if it ever came down to it.

There was something else she could do in this state, she knew. It wasn't in the book, and she wasn't sure how she'd achieved it the last time, but she knew that she could, if she tried hard enough, and relaxed. For most people, trying hard and relaxing seem antithetical, but for a witch with any real experience, it became second nature.

She concentrated on going _deeper_ and released her mind to flow along the currents of magic around her. She closed her eyes softly, almost going into a trance.

Suddenly, she found herself in that _other_ place.

It was a desert. Buffy would recognize it as the place where she'd originally met the first slayer. Just a barren mindscape. Dawn walked... no. She wasn't walking, she was _willing_ herself along. Slowly, a figure faded into view. It was blurry at first, but as she continued to stretch out her mind, it came into focus, as a woman, plainly dressed in a sandy white.

"Hello?" Dawn said.

"Hello, Dawn. I've been waiting for you to find me," said Oma Desala. "I couldn't come to you like I wanted to."

* * *

Daniel was looking forward to being back in Sunnydale. He had brought several texts in Sumerian for Dawn to look at. Daniel wasn't very good at it, and there were few people in the world who could read it as quickly as Dawn could, or with the same eye for practical translation.

His car pulled up outside 1630 Revello Drive, and he smiled. Grabbing his bag out of the passenger seat, he headed up to the door to knock.

"Hello," Daniel said when Andrew opened the door.

"Hi, Doctor Jackson," Andrew said. "Come on in."

"Thanks. Is Buffy here?"

"No, she's out checking on something. Can I help you?"

Daniel thought about that for a moment and suppressed a shudder.

"Max?"

"On the moon by now," Andrew replied.

"Oh. Xander?"

"I don't know where he is, I haven't seen him for a while. He might be with Isabel."

"Oh. Michael?"

Andrew looked at the couch where Michael and Maria had been making out and was surpised to find them gone, but he thought they might have gone upstairs for some privacy. "Indisposed, I think."

"Giles, then." Daniel said.

"Really, I can help you..." Andrew said.

"Well, I was wondering if Dawn could help me with some things we recovered from our recent trip to Samakrah."

"Dawn's upstairs, I think," Andrew said. He quickly gave Daniel directions to Dawn's room and then sighed and withdrew to the dining room where he was putting the finishing touches on his 'Big Board'.

Daniel headed up the stairs, and knocked softly on Dawn's door. "Dawn?"

* * *

Spike was leaving the Bronze with the girl he'd finally convinced to come away with him. It had been so much easier to do this when he was in perfect unhealth and his usual stunning self. The sodding First wasn't feeding him enough, and he looked all bony.

He took the girl's hand and led her down an alleyway, away from the Bronze. He found a nice secluded spot with her and kissed her neck. Bloody hell, that smelled good. He reared his head back and went into his game face. A moment later, he had sunk his teeth into the girl and was drinking like a starving man.

It was while he was stuck in the euphoria of his fresh kill that the Bringers closed in on him. They were always bloody watching him, and there were always at least eight. He was good, but he didn't stand much of a chance against those odds, and he knew it, not in his weakened condition. However, he had fresh blood on his lips and Spike loved a fight. Might as well try, can't get much worse than it has been, eh?

Then Buffy ran into the alley. Spike sighed. "Sod off, wanker. I know it's you."

Buffy then did something entirely uncharacteristic in Spike's recent experience. She began to beat the crap out of the nearest Bringer.

"Wot the..." Spike said. He dropped the girl, now almost empty, and then smiled. Even if it was a trick, seven are easier to kill than eight, right? With a vampiric roar, he began to frenzy. He flipped one bringer onto its back and then rushed on to tear into a second just after they turned to look at Buffy.

Another bloke came into the alley, and his hand was full of green sparks. He waved it, and another Bringer went flying.

One of the Bringers caught Spike with its knife, and Spike roared, and turned and literally ripped its head off.

The rest of the fight was a blur for Spike, but the three of them went through the eight Bringers fairly quickly.

Buffy ran to Spike when it was finished, to look at his leg. She was touching him. Actually touching him. Bloody hell, was she for real?

"Slayer!" Spike said, drunk on the fighting. "Good of you to join me!" he reached for her neck, and bit it before she could react. Kyle threw him off into a wall, and he passed out.

Just then, another Buffy came out from a shadow to face Kyle. "Now, that's not nice! Spike's my pet, and it's not good to mess with other peoples' pets!" Buffy/the First said to Kyle. "You might have hurt him!"

"Not _permanently_," Kyle said as he waved his crackling hand at the new Buffy, vaguely surprised when nothing happened.

"Incorporeal, remember? Now, where were we. Ah, yes. Pets." Buffy/the First looked down at Buffy, who had recovered from being bitten and was picking herself up off the ground. "Lucky for me, Spike's not my only one." She/it gave a wicked smile as two Ubervamps stepped out of the shadow and snarled at Kyle and Buffy.

Buffy glanced at Spike in a heap against the wall, and sighed. "This is _**so** not_ my day."

* * *

"What is this place?" Dawn asked.

"It's everywhere," Oma said. "On another level. Between your plane and mine. A step to ascension. It's as far as I'm allowed to come. The others... they've forbidden me to come to your plane."

"Ascension?"

"The goal of life. To cross over from the physical to the energetic." Oma explained. "To become, in your terms, purely spirit, unbound by the limits of flesh."

"So you're, like a ghost?"

Oma smiled. "I'm not dead. My people have simply grown beyond the need for a body, and now exist on a level above the physical."

"You're not dead, but I'm not all the way to where you are yet. You said this is just a step." Dawn got increasingly worried. "Am -I- dead?"

Oma smiled the annoyingly coy smile she had. "No."

"So, I know how I got to be here. Why did you come to me?"

"Because you are important, Dawn. More important than you know."

"I'm not special," Dawn said. "I used to be the Key, but... that's over with. Glory's dead!"

"Her passing cannot change who and what you are, Dawn. Only you can do that."

"What?"

"You need to free your mind. Your body and your memories.. they are making you limit yourself. But you are not your body, Dawn, or your memories. The universe is made up of spirit, not of mind."

"My... but.. I'm just me! I know I was made from this mystical energy, but I'm just human now! Willow and I have looked, there's nothing special about me! I'm not even that powerful a witch!"

"Power is irrelevant for you, Dawn. You have no idea what you could be capable of. But you need to learn, before it's too late."

"But.." Dawn began to protest.

"I'm out of time," Oma interrupted. "I need to go before it finds me here. Remember, Dawn. Spirit, not mind. Free yourself of your perceptions. You are not your body, but your essence." Oma began to fade out, receding into a blur. "Remember!" she called out as she disappeared.

"Oma! Wait," Dawn shouted. "Oma!"

Just like that, the mindscape was gone, and Dawn was thrust back into her waking state. She heard herself shouting. "Oma!"

Opening her eyes, she sighed. She hated cryptic. She really did. She began to blow out the candles when she heard a frantic knock on her door.

"Dawn?" came the muffled voice.

She finished blowing out the candles as she matched the voice to her memory. "Daniel?"

She got up and opened the door, to see a very shocked Daniel standing there.

"Did you just shout 'Oma'?" he asked.

Dawn blushed. "Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," she began.

"Oma Desala?" he asked.

Dawn's eyes narrowed. How could he know that? "Y-yuh huh?"

"I think we need to talk," Daniel said, smiling slightly.

* * *

Liz, Willow, and Sam were gathered around the latest batch of test results. Heimdall and Loki were in front of them, manipulating the holographic display.

"We've been trying to figure this out for years, and that's it?" Sam said. "That's the only difference?"

"It would appear so, Samantha Carter." Loki said. "O'Neill's sample has this gene here, which we positively identified as an Ancient gene. We identified the same gene in Liz Parker's gene sample," he manipulated the hologram to show where the gene marker was in Liz's gene, "and also in Max Evans' sample," he moved the hologram again and it now showed three sets of DNA with the Ancient gene highlighted, "and also in Isabel's, Kyle's, Alexander's and Buffy and Dawn Summers' samples, but not in yours, Willow and Samantha."

Liz smiled. "Yeah, not only that, but also, My genes and Max's carry this marker here," Liz moved the hologram and highlighted the gene sequence in a different color. "Just like Isabel's and Kyle's." that's what makes us unique. It's like the other half of the Ancient gene."

Heimdall nodded. "We have also identified this sequence in Willow's and Dawn Summers' DNA, as well as Maria's," Loki continued. "It more closely matches the records we have of the Furlings than the Ancients', and we are unable to identify it."

"Maybe," Willow started to think out loud.

"You have a theory, Willow?" Heimdall asked.

"Maybe there's a gene that controls magical potential. It would explain why some people can do magic, like me or Dawn, and some people can't, like Xander." she said.

"So Maria has magical potential?" Liz asked.

"It's just a theory," Willow said. "I have no idea. This is all guesswork, at this point."

"Here's a question," Sam said. "If Max changed your DNA to match his when he healed you, why didn't you just have abilities right away? You said it took a year to develop them."

"My guess is biological," Liz said. "Even though my DNA changed, my brain was still the same brain, and my blood was still the same blood. The alien physiology is mostly the same, but the blood and the brain are different. I think that my blood gradually became alien as my body replaced it - that is, red cells for green cells - and once they were all green, my brain began to function slightly differently. It took my brain a while to form the necessary pathways to the parts of my brain that I didn't use before I was changed."

"That's plausible," Sam said.

"Wow.." Willow said. "I guess now we just have to run some more tests to get data to support or debunk all these theories. My big interest now is in whether Maria's got any magical potential."

"Well, with the information we have collected, we are well on our way to being able to produce new bodies for ourselves," Heimdall said. "Thor will be most happy to hear this good news."

"Good," Liz said. "Now, it's time for Kennedy and Max to visit," she reminded them all with a big smile which Willow matched.

* * *

"What's the matter, Buffy?" Joyce/the First said. "I tell you, you're always complaining. I thought you grew out of that when you turned 20."

"You're _not_ my mother," Buffy said.

"Sure I am," Joyce/the First said. "You can see me. You can hear my voice. You remember how you skinned your knees when you were younger and how I always blew the sting away when I cleaned your cuts and kissed your bruises. You remember my voice when I told you that..."

"You're _**not**_ my _mother_." Buffy repeated, annoyed.

The First shifted into Spike's form. "OK, I'm bored. It hardly matters," came the reply. "You won't be alive long enough to toy with anyway." Joyce/the First said. "I mean, I love a taunt and a gloat as much as the next supervillain, but I know the movies well enough not to monologue." She turned to the two Ubervamps. "Kill them both." she said simply.

Kyle and Buffy stood side by side against a wall as the Ubervamps came forward. "What now," Kyle asked.

Buffy steeled herself. "We run away, of course."

"You don't have to do that, Buffy," Xander said.

"Xander?" Buffy turned to the left to see Xander.

"I thought you'd get into trouble. So I followed."

The Ubervamps stopped and looked at Spike/the First for orders. He/it just chuckled. "Three birds, two stones. Go on, pets. Kill 'em."

Xander laughed. "Your math? _Waay_ off."

Isabel came around the corner to join Xander. Michael, Maria, and Giles were at the other end of the alley. All five of them were armed to the teeth.

Buffy stared. "How did you know?"

"Buffy..." Michael said. "It's _you_. Of _course_ trouble found you as soon as you left us."

"I'm getting tired of the chitchat," Spike/the First said. "Kill them!" it yelled to the Ubervamps.

The two of them rushed Buffy and Kyle first. Buffy ran up the wall and flipped over one Ubervamp to stake it from behind, but the stake hit its back and didn't go through. It swung around at her, catching her on the shoulder, and she tumbled away.

Kyle put up his hand and pushed at his, but it was heavier than it looked, and he couldn't do much more than just keep it back.

"I hope we can do this," Kyle said.

"Me too," Buffy said, getting up.

Kyle faltered as Buffy's Ubervamp came at him, and he went down as it swiped at him. His belly was open, and a pool of blood was slowly creeping out.

"Kyle!" Isabel shouted. "Giles! Get Max!"

Giles flipped his cell phone open and hit the speed-dial for the moon. He waited as it rang.

"Hurry up, Giles!" Isabel shouted.

Spike/the First just smiled.


	20. Once More Into the Breeches

* * *

Chapter 20 - Once More Into the Breeches

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Dawn brought Daniel down into the living room so she could get comfy on the couch for their talk. She pulled a pillow up onto her lap and hugged it as she tucked her legs underneath her, and nodded for Daniel to take the armchair.

"So, Daniel, what do you know?"

"Well, not a whole lot, Dawn. I used to be ascended, like Oma. But I don't remember most of it. But not long ago, Oma came to me and told me to be on the lookout for - and this is going to sound pretty crazy - Mother Earth."

Dawn's eyes widened. "That sounds like Willow. She's all in touch with the Earthy energies an' stuff."

"Willow? I hadn't considered that the... _avatar_ as Oma put it, would be a witch.. but Oma did say that she'd be 23 years old by my reckoning. I guess that makes sense since that's Willow's age, too."

"So then Willow's Mother Earth?" Dawn's eyes kept getting wider.

"Not yet. Oma led me to believe she was on the path, but that she hadn't reached her potential yet. That power will be needed though. So how did you meet Oma?"

"Oh," Dawn bounced a little. "Well, I was meditating in my room, you know, steeping myself in the primal energies, when suddenly I felt a shift in my perception... so then I kind of... _stretched_ myself outwards and I found myself in this desert... and that's where Oma came to me."

"So you figured out a path to ascension?" Daniel asked.

"Maybe, I don't know.. I just knew I could do it. I've been there once before, I think. This wasn't the first time I've spoken to Oma."

Daniel looked thoughtful. "You've spoken to her before? When?"

Dawn's brow furrowed. "You know, I don't know? I can't really remember when, I just know that I'd been there, met her, before this."

Daniel was confused. Oma had said that she had only ever spoken to two people from Earth...

"Dawn... how old are you?"

"What?" Dawn asked. "I'm sixteen, of course!"

"She said 23... that's off by seven years."

"Wait..." Dawn shook her head. "It can't be me. I didn't even exist until three years ago!"

"Hold on, three?"

"Yes. Three."

"You just said you were sixteen."

"It's a long, complicated story, which I'm not going to share. Suffice it to say, I wasn't always here, even though everybody remembers me being here."

"That's off by twenty years."

"I know!"

"Strange," Daniel said.

* * *

Buffy got back to her feet, and Michael tossed her a sword. She went at the Ubervamp with renewed morale, but she wasn't getting anywhere, it was simply too fast. Sword in one hand, stake in the other, she fought as hard as she could. She managed to stake it at one point, out of reflex, but the stake once again just stuck in, unwilling to break its way through to the heart. Michael, seeing this, reached out a hand, and exploded the stake. The resulting force was enough to push shards of wood into the creature's withered heart, and it promptly turned to dust.

"No!" Spike/the First cried out.

Figuring that if they could kill one, they could kill the other, the First contented itself with Kyle's death, and disappeared.

"Where is Max?" Isabel yelled out, having ripped off Kyle's shirt and using both hands to hold it against his wound.

"_Hello, Giles._" a hologram of Loki appeared next to the watcher. "_What can I do for you?_"

"We need Max here, immediately."

Loki blinked. "_Max is busy, Giles. Is it important?._"

"Kyle requires medical attention, he is greviously wounded, and it is urgent."

Loki nodded. "_I see. One moment._"

The hologram blinked out, and a moment later, in a flash of light, Max appeared. He was halfway through removing his shirt, and didn't notice that he'd moved until his shirt came up off his head, and the warm, friendly light of Liz's room in the moon base was replaced with the dark alleyway.

He knew he wasn't called away in the middle for fun.

"What's going on?" Max asked.

Unfortunately, the remaining Turok-han, who had thrown Michael into a wall near where Spike had landed, was attracted to him by the flash of light, and slashed across his back. Max went flying, and landed on his stomach, with deep, nasty, flowing red gashes across his back.

Buffy and Xander approached the Turok-han from opposite sides. Buffy engaged, a furious combination of kicks and punches putting the Ubervamp on the defensive. Xander reared back with his axe and aimed a massive swing at the back of the Turok-han. Unfortunately, it grabbed Buffy and spun her around into the path of the axe. Xander tried to pull it back, but he wasn't strong enough to stop it, and his axe buried itself in Buffy's shoulder. She screamed, and Xander dropped the axe handle in shock. The Turok-han dropped Buffy and moved forward after Xander, who ran to lead it away.

"Giles, take over for me!" Isabel said. The British man did so, and Isabel got up to join the fight.

Michael was just beginning to get himself up when he noticed something he'd experienced once before. The royal crest was beginning to light up inside him. Max was dying. "Maxwell!" Michael rushed to Max's side, and quickly healed him. As he did, the royal crest left him and settled with Max once again. This duty fulfilled, Michael ran to help Isabel and Xander.

Kyle, under Isabel's and Giles' ministrations, was no longer bleeding out, but he was very weak, and close to dead. Giles hoped Max would be able to get up and tend to him and Buffy soon.

* * *

Liz had just had her boyfriend beamed away in the middle of an intimate moment. She was not pleased. She came out into the lab area and found Loki.

Adopting an annoyed expression, she faced down the short alien. "Loki, did you just beam Max out?"

"Yes, he was required for a medical emergency, apparently Kyle was severely wounded."

"Oh my god," Liz said, shocked. She'd thought it was just one of Loki's practical jokes. "Send me down there! They might need backup!"

Loki nodded. "As you wish."

He adjusted a dial on a nearby control panel, and hit a few buttons, and Liz blinked out in a flash.

* * *

Andrew had invited himself to join in Daniel and Dawn's conversation.

"So you essentially died, but Oma showed you how to Ascend so that you wouldn't have to?"

"That's pretty much it," Daniel confirmed. "I don't remember much after that. But after I ascended, well, I remember it was pretty nifty being ascended, but not much more than that."

"'If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine'," Andrew said, in awe.

Daniel shot him a look. This kid knew more about Star Wars than Teal'c. "Something like that."

"But you came back?" Dawn asked.

"Yes. Still not sure exactly how that happened, but SG1 just sort of.. found me."

"Hmm. So going backwards harder than going forwards, huh?" Dawn smiled.

Daniel returned her smile. "Yeah... so what did Oma say to you?"

"She said that the universe is made of spirit, not body."

"'Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter!'" Andrew said, in his best Yoda voice.

"_Must_ you reduce spiritual revelations to Star Wars quotes?" Daniel asked.

"Sorry," Andrew said. "It just seemed to fit..."

Dawn looked thoughtful. "You know, that's not a bad way to look at it."

"See?" Andrew said, pointing to Dawn and looking at Daniel, who rolled his eyes.

"She said that my body and my memories are limiting me. She said I need to free my mind."

Andrew opened his mouth, but Dawn cut him off. "No Matrix references."

"Aww.." Andrew whined.

* * *

The situation was looking pretty bad. Buffy was down with an arm all but chopped off, Max hadn't gotten up yet, and Xander wouldn't be able to outrun the Turok-han for long. It lumbered most of the time, but it could be deadly swift when it sensed an opportunity.

Liz blinked in with a flash, and went immediately to Max. "Max, get up.. Kyle and Buffy need you!"

Max groggily got up. "What? Oh.. Kyle!" He scampered over to Kyle, and healed him. He was just in time. He sensed that Kyle would only have lasted a few more minutes, at best. It took a lot of Max's energy to heal him, and Max felt drained. But, he knew that he needed to help Buffy too.

He crawled his way over with Liz's help, and laid his hand over Buffy's wound. Slowly, it began to knit back together. Liz was worried. Normally it was easier than this.

"Max, are you OK?"

"I'll be fine," He grunted through his teeth. He had to save Buffy. He knew he was the only one who could.

Liz just put her hand on Max's, and suddenly, Max's weariness seemed to drain out of him. Or Liz's strength to flow into him. Either way, he healed Buffy's shoulder as good as new, and replaced the massive amount of blood she'd lost. As it was, she was very lucky that axe hadn't gone any deeper, as it had already started to slice into her lung, which had been full of blood.

She was fine now, though, and slowly getting up already, with true Slayer resilience. "What happened?"

"The Turok-han used you as a shield to block Xander's axe." Giles said.

Spike groggily started to come to, with a moan. "Did anybody get the number of that sodding Mack truck?"

"Incoming!" Xander shouted, running past Buffy, Max, Liz, and Giles and diving to the ground, exhausted.

The Ubervamp came around the corner, and Buffy grabbed the bloodstained axe from the ground and began to charge it.

"Where are Michael and Isabel?" Max asked.

"I led it away from them. It got Michael, small injury - sprained his ankle when it hit him and knocked him off his feet. Isabel stayed to look after him while I led the Ubervamp away.", Xander panted.

Kyle, Giles, Max and Liz advanced on the Ubervamp. Buffy was holding her own against it, but only just.

"Stretcher," Max said, looking around at the others.

"Right arm," Liz said.

"Left arm," Kyle said.

"Right leg," Xander said.

The others put up their hands, and telekinetically grabbed the Turok-Han pulling in different directions. Unable to get his powers to work, Xander fan and grabbed onto the Turok-han's right leg like a kid who didn't want his dad to leave. It was pretty effectively pinned, for the moment, although it was fighting hard and they were all straining.

"Quick, Buff! The head!"

Buffy nodded and heaved the axe, cleaving the Turok-han's head off its pinned body.

It turned to dust, and they ran around to take stock of the situation.

Two Ubervamps down, and they were OK, more or less.

"Spike!" Buffy exclaimed, and ran over to grab his wrists and pin them behind his back.

"Ow! Easy on the merchandise, love. You don't get to do this anymore, we broke up, remember?" Spike exclaimed.

"In your dreams, Spike," Buffy said, manhandling him toward the others. "Rope, anybody?"

Giles produced some rope to tie Spike's hands with. While the vampire was capable of bursting them, the time necessary to do so would give everybody a big heads-up.

In the end, Spike came along quietly. "So, anybody want to explain how the hell I got here?"

"You'll have to do that for _us_ when we get back, Spike." Buffy replied.

"It's not enough I wake up with the hangover from hell," Spike complained, holding his head, "but now I have to play Twenty sodding Questions? Brilliant."

* * *

Ba'al didn't think they'd discovered much of anything regarding his plans at his base, since his most secure vaults had been undisturbed. However, he was missing the books of magic the First had provided him with. The magic had been his ace in the hole against Anubis, and he needed to get those books back. Or get new ones. He was sure The First could provide him with new copies. For the moment, he still knew all the spells he'd already read. The magical barriers around his Death Gliders had made his fleet nearly unstoppable, and had stopped that low-velocity-projectile problem which their energy barriers had.

The First faded into the room in the guise of Buffy. "The Slayer and her brats ruined my fun and stole my pet!" she/it whined. "You shall have to help me think of suitable retribution."

Ba'al's eyes flashed white. "I believe that will be pleasurable." He smiled, as much as a Goa'uld could, and went over to his control panel. "Your plans for Samakrah are proceeding as planned, but they have stolen my magic books."

"Tsk tsk, Ba'al. You shouldn't leave your valuables lying around."

"They were in my personal vault."

"Then the Tau'ri are more clever than you give them credit for." She breathed.

"I will not make this mistake again. Soon, they will all die."

"From your lips to my ears," Buffy/the First grinned.


	21. Blue Genes

* * *

Chapter 21 - Blue Genes Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Killing the two UberVamps had given everybody at Scooby Central a well-needed boost of morale. The Potentials were more willing to put their faith in Buffy and the others to protect them now that they'd shown they could handle an UberVamp. Or two, even.

More potentials showed up during the next week. They were overflowing Slayer Central, so a call was put in to Liz, who persuaded Heimdall to allow some of the potentials to crash in the Moon Base.

Dawn told the Scoobs what she and Daniel had talked about. Willow was very intrigued by the clues and the mystery, so she had Dawn go up there for a massive battery of tests. The Asgard scanners were able to measure right down to the quarks that made up her atoms. Dawn's DNA wasn't really different from baseline human, although she was a carrier of both the Ancient gene and what they'd dubbed the Furling gene. They did however find an anomaly on the cellular level. Her cells seemed to have a construct consisting of an extra Golgi apparatus fused with its own mitochondrion.

"How is that even possible?" Carter asked, examining the scan. "These readings are correct?" she asked the Asgard.

"We took skin samples and blood samples from several different locations throughout her body. Every cell we tested: skin, blood, hair, even nail clippings, contain examples of this phenomenon.

Dawn bit her lip. "But what does it mean... Oh god, I'm some sort of mutant freak..."

Carter considered this. "No. I don't know what function these constructs perform, but they don't seem to have affected you in any adverse way. Medical is not my department, though."

"Phew," Dawn said, visibly relieved.

Willow brightened. "Maybe... maybe it's related to our Furling genes?"

"Well, we can test that theory easily enough," Carter said. "Dawn can use magic. If this is the biology required for magical potential, then you should have them, too."

Loki continued to examine Dawn's complete bio-readout, apart from the rest of the group. He had seen and was investigating something completely different.

"Well, let's get a scan of me then!" Willow bounced.

Heimdall ran Willow over to the scanning device. Even the Asgard computers required some time to process and analyze a person's complete quantum make-up, so wild theories were bounced around among the humans for a while while they waited. Heimdall said nothing, but watched the conversation with amused interest. After a minute or two, their speculation was broken by a small grey alien with a logical inconsistency.

"Hmm." Loki suddenly said.

"What's wrong, Loki?" Liz asked.

"I have found something of an anomaly in Dawn's age."

"Well, I mean, that's probably expected. She was created by magic three years ago," Willow said.

"Curious. That does match somewhat, but is not completely consistent with my readings." the small grey alien replied.

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked. She remembered her conversation with Daniel and what Oma had said.

"Her genetic age is what one would expect... sixteen point-four-seven-three-three years."

"That's about right, I guess," Dawn said, counting out the months and days, which seemed to match somewhat with her birthday. "What's so weird about that?"

"Your carbon-age is three point six-two-six-four years."

"Yeah, that's when we expect that the monks made me." Dawn said.

"Again, this is not inconsistent. We find this inconsistency in our clones, as well. However, I am unable to discern what the significance of the other number."

"Other number?" Carter asked. "What other number?"

"Her quantum age is twenty-three point two-oh-eight-two years."

Dawn shouted out an expletive in Sumerian.

"How does that work? Shouldn't her quantum age be the same as her carbon date?" Willow asked.

"Yes," Carter replied. "It should."

* * *

Xander and Isabel were snuggled on the couch. They were watching a movie of some kind on TV, not really paying attention to it, but content to just sit with one another in the dark in the TV's inconsistent glow. Isabel's fingers were partially entwined with the fingers of one of Xander's hands, and they sat in silence like that, playing with one another's fingers, until Xander finally opened his mouth.

"This thing..."

"Xander, stop," Isabel interrupted.

"No. Let me say this," Xander pleaded. "I've got to get this out. This thing between us... I don't know what it is. I don't know if I'm just your rebound guy, or if I'm Mr. Right, or Mr. Right Now, but I want you to know that..." Xander paused to gather himself. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it out. Turning his dark eyes on hers, he held her gaze, brushing her cheek with a caress. "I love you.I haven't known you that long, but I already feel like a part of you."

She looked at him seriously for a minute, the tension palpable. He added, "I don't hold any delusions of being your heart. I'll settle for a spleen maybe. Or one of the removable parts like a Gall Bladder or Appendix...Mph!"

He was cut off as Isabel, very suddenly, jumped up and kissed him. Thoroughly. Xander thought he'd never been so really, truly, good and kissed. "Shut up, you dolt. I love you too. Ugh! I can't believe you didn't already know that!"

"I can't read your mind," Xander said.

"Haven't you flashed?" Isabel asked, looking surprised.

"Sorry, no.. closest I ever came was a speedo when I joined the swim team this one time..."

"No, I mean, when Liz and Max make out, they get flashes... visions of one anothers' lives. Michael and Maria have noticed it too."

Xander frowned. "I can't honestly say I've noticed that. Which, frankly, makes me feel very inadequate."

Isabel laughed a little at his self-deprecating joke, and realized that she'd never had a flash with him, either.

It was a little unsettling, and both of them were quiet for a long time.

* * *

Ba'al had secured a cadre of fully human slaves in one of his raids on Anubis' territory. Thirteen of them were now hung naked in a circle around the Seal on Samakrah. Strange symbols had been drawn on them all in their own blood. Ba'al spoke his words, "Fakushk'a gramathra..." a wicked knife on a metal arm lowered from the ceiling, between all the sacrifices. Suddenly, a click was heard, and the knife revolved in a circle, slashing the bellies of all of the poor human 'cattle' hanging up.

Drusilla/the First smiled. "It smells like Christmas morning..."

Ba'al smiled arrogantly as the blood ran down onto the Seal. It quickly covered the Seal completely. Ba'al spoke the next line of the spell. "Lak'rana Urin romakra, Samakrah..." as he continued to chant, the blood began to be absorbed into the Seal, and the wicked looking horned goat covering the seal began to glow. The ground began to rumble, and the sound of gas being released made the cavern roar.

Drusilla/the First ran her hands down her body as she bathed in the putrid presence of the opening Hellmouth. "Oh, it's been SO long... This is the best birthday ever!"

"_Curak 'Sama! Libkhan Fe'hli UNAK!_" Ba'al screamed.

Drusilla/the First fell down and rolled on the ground screaming in pleasure. She continued this while Ba'al continued to chant, and a palpable feeling of power built up in the room. It was almost as though the spaces between the air molecules were being filled in with a malignant energy, and beginning to burst.

When the ritual was finished, she looked up at Ba'al and smiled wickedly. "That was fun."

Ba'al surveyed his handiwork. The bodies had all been consumed. With them had disappeared the Seal.

For the first time in millions of years, there was a Hellmouth completely open in this dimension.

* * *

"Oooh," Dawn said, suddenly dizzy. She started to slump down in her chair, and Willow and Sam immediately looked concerned.

"Sweetie, are you OK?" Willow asked.

"I don't feel so good, all of a sudden," Dawn murmured. "Dizzy, sleepy... drained."

"Maybe you should lie down," Sam said, pointing her to the medical exam table.

Willow conjured up a pillow for her, and laid her head down on it. They were very worried, and then about ten minutes later, Dawn suddenly shot straight up. "It's open!" she shouted.

* * *

"Man, this has been a breeze since the UberVamps were dusted," Kennedy had said to Buffy earlier that night. She'd been taking the Potentials on patrols with her for a week now. It had been quiet, and Buffy didn't like it. After all, she knew that when Sunnydale got quiet it was usually because the Big Bad was planning something.

Still, it was difficult not to be happy that they hadn't seen hide nor hair of the First or UberVamps since the big fight.

At first, she'd been so proud of them for beating the two Turok-han. Now though, she was getting more and more antsy. The thought about it as she lay down in bed. She was tired from sparring all night with each of the potentials. Spike had come to be helpful with them as a training partner, but even so, there were so many of them and just the two of them able to approximate the kind of speed and strength that the Potentials would be dealing with out in the field.

Buffy's dreams were pleasant, her mother had made her pancakes, Dawn was being bratty, and her father had kissed her goodbye on his way out to work. Buffy sat at the breakfast bar talking with her mother as she chowed down on her pancakes. None of her family had ever heard of the Slayer, and she was the most popular cheerleader at Hemery High.

"How'd you feel about some more," Joyce said.

"Thanks, mom," Buffy replied happily. "I love your pancakes. Can't get enough of 'em."

"I didn't mean more pancakes," Joyce/the First said. "You don't even know how much trouble you're in,"

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"You all feel like you've won a major battle. You don't even get it. Let me show you." Joyce/the First grabbed Buffy by the hand.

Buffy was startled. "You... how can you touch me? You're incorporated."

"This is a dream, Buffy. I can do whatever I want here. Come along," the evil replied. The scene blurred away, replaced by the black of space, as stars whizzed by faster than lightning. A sphere grew in their vision. It was half light, half dark. They seemed to float around toward the dark side, as the planet (for that was what it was) grew ever and ever larger. In the space of a second that seemed to last forever, they were standing in a dark cave with a wide hole in the ground. "In we go," Joyce/the First said, pushing Buffy in.

What came next shook Buffy to the core. Under the hole was a vast cavern. In this cavern she saw UberVamps. A sea of them; there seemed to be no end. As far as her eyes could see, there were more, and more, all slobbering and grunting and skulking around in a massive throng.

"Do you get it now?" Joyce/the First said. "You are so dead. You can't fight this. Stop trying."

Buffy gulped. Looking out again over the limitless sea of Turok-han, she thought the First might be right.

Suddenly, Buffy woke up in a cold sweat in her bedroom. "Oh god," she whispered, "we are so dead." 


	22. To Catch a Spy

* * *

Chapter 22 - To Catch a Spy Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

The study of Dawn's genes led to some digging into her history. This was very difficult, since the only ones who really knew her proper history, the Monks of Dagon, and the Knights of Byzantium, were both now extinct. The gang spent days looking through books for any information at all on how she was made.

Willow's theory based on what little evidence they'd been able to find in their research, was that the monks had summoned the Key fully onto this plane for the last time twenty-three years ago, when they had sealed Glory inside then-four-year-old Ben. She surmised that the energy of the Key was required to hold Glory inside, since being a goddess, she had a lot of power to contend with.

This theory, while the best one they had given their information, had a few cracks that nobody could determine the answers to. But they were caught up in fighting the First, so they decided to leave it be for now, and then come back to it later. It was Daniel's hypothesis, however, that the twenty-three-year-old age given to him by Oma might very well refer to Dawn.

Dawn, for her part, was spending more and more time when she wasn't researching or translating things for Buffy meditating in her room. It was one of these sessions, only a few days later, that she had a breakthrough. Oma had told her she needed to open herself to possibilites and free her mind from the limitations she imposed on it. At first, meditation had helped her achieve a sort of hyper-aware state. When she was calm and she wasn't focused on anything in particular, her awareness widened. She could sense everything around.

She hadn't mentioned it to anybody, although she was scared that Kyle might have caught her watching him somehow, as he seemed to notice himself being watched whenever she did.

She did, at least, refrain from looking for him in the shower.

* * *

"Why did we get roped into this, anyway?" Xander asked, putting his signal on to change lanes. Passing the slow old station wagon in their slightly less old VW bus, Isabel picked up his hand to kiss it.

"Poor baby... " she purred. "It's not so bad being here with me, is it?"

Xander smiled. "Of course not. You're what makes it worthwhile. I just wish we didn't have to drive to Seattle." They'd learned the night before that a small group of Potentials were stuck in Seattle, and being hunted.

Isabel leaned over to kiss his neck.

"Mmmmm," Xander moaned.

"Ugh, get a room!" Andrew moaned.

Isabel jumped back into her seat. "Andrew! I thought you were asleep."

"Oh no, I was just meditating, trying to get in touch with the Force. I think I'm close," he added.

Isabel rolled her eyes. "I don't know if I'll make it all the way to Seattle," she whispered to Xander. "He's so creepy!"

* * *

Buffy/the First stretched langorously as she/it listened to Kralik's report. The Tok'ra spy had been found, and captured. It hadn't been the First Prime, but rather a technician who frequently worked in the sensitive areas and had near-total access to the computer system. Evidence had been gathered, properly, and once there had been enough to condemn them, he was tortured for information, and then summarily executed. Ba'al was very impressed with Kralik's efficiency, as was the First. Even sweeter, the spy had given up the location of the Tok'ra homeworld. Soon, Ba'al could remove that thorn from his side in one fell swoop.

"Well done, my servant. As promised, I grant upon you the title of First Prime." He held out his hand device, and an energy wave was barely seen. Kralik's forehead tattoo turned from black to gold. "Tou have done well so far. Impress me further with your efficiency and ingenuity and the rewards will be great."

"Thank you, my Lord." Kralik said from one knee, bearing the pain of the change to his tattoo gratefully.

"Since you have done so well thus far, you will be the one to deal with the Tok'ra. Make whatever preparations are necessary for an assault upon their homeworld. I will await news of your victory. You are dismissed."

Kralik crossed his arm over his chest in obeisance, bowing further. Then he stood, spun neatly on one heel and walked out.

"You just can't beat having good help," Buffy/the First said.

"Without the Tok'ra to spy for them, the Tau'ri will be blinded as well," Ba'al said. "And now with that happy thought to occupy us, let us begin the experimentation."

Buffy/the First smiled. "I can't wait to see the Slayer's face when she sees these babies... I imagine it'll look something like this..." She/it affected a look of abject terror, then laughed.

Ba'al joined in as well. Hearing a goa'uld's oddly over-modulated voice cackle... that was scary.

* * *

SGC: Control room, 1600 hours

"Unscheduled offworld activation!" the duty technician monitoring the gate computer cried out as the gate room alarm started to sound.

"What teams have we got off-world?" Hammond asked.

"None due back at this time, sir. SG-9 is on P34-27X and SG-13 is training at the Alpha site. That's it."

"So then," Hammond began, but was interrupted by the technician.

"Sir, code signal confirms, it's the Tok'ra."

"Open the iris, and send a security team down to the gate room as 'honor guard' just in case, and inform SG-1 to meet me in the briefing room."

"Yes sir," the tech said, responding to the orders. The guards filed into the gate room, and he entered the command to open the iris, sending the signal through the gate to say that it was open. A moment later, Jacob/Selmak walked down the ramp to be greeted by general Hammond.

"Jacob," George said.

"George, good to see you, although I wish it were under better circumstances."

"So you're not bringing us good news," the general replied.

"No. I'd rather explain when we have everybody together."

"I've sent for SG-1, they should meet us in the briefing room. Follow me." Hammond gestured towards the door and walked off, leading the way to the briefing room, not that Jacob needed the guide since by this point he was very familiar with the SGC.

* * *

Dawn opened up her consciousness as she'd learned to do. Sitting alone in her room, she looked at Willow with her mind's eye. The redheaded witch was practicing magic. Small things, since she was still a bit reticent to do anything major with her magic lest she go all 'grr' again.

Dawn noticed she wasn't so much practicing, as reminiscing. She was floating a rose, which aside from being a practice exercise for magical control, was something she'd done in the past in conjunction with Tara.

Then Dawn noted something interesting. She could see little threads of light wrapped around the rose, connecting it to the floor. No, not the floor, the threads kept going. If she concentrated, she could almost follow them...

Thoughts of 'almost' flew out the window as suddenly Dawn felt as though she was riding the string like a roller-coaster as it wove its way back into the earth. She reached the earth's molten core, and was awed. She knew, logically, that the core of the earth was molten rock, with heavy deposits of iron moving around at high speeds, generating earth's magnetic field. But she could see, at the center of the earth's core, a pool of silvery fire, with billions of tiny threads tied to it. Some were thicker than others. There were a few thick ropes leading out, she followed the thickest back up the same way she'd followed the threads from the rose downward. She was unsurprised to learn that it led to Willow, ending at her navel. She moved her sight back into her body and looked down at her own navel, and saw a respectable string which was pitifully modest compared to Willow's thickly braided rope.

"I'll just have to practice more, I guess," she said out loud to nobody in particular. Opening her eyes and letting her trance go, she smiled. "But that was just... neat."

* * *

SGC: Briefing room: 16:15

"I'm sad to say that Ba'al has ferreted out our spy in his staff. The Tok'ra agent was found and killed. The last reports we have from him say that Ba'al has... I'm a little unclear on this... found an army of darkness."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jack asked with an eyebrow quirked.

"I have no idea. But Ba'al was already dangerous with the forces he had. If he's put together a whole new army... this is bad news." Jacob continued.

Sam was thinking. Sam was always thinking. "What do we know about this army?" she asked, feeling a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"All we really know is what we were told - that they're stronger, faster, and more vicious than Jaffa. Our spy was still investigating when he was discovered."

"Sir," Carter began, "I suggest that we call in somebody with a... differing specialty. Can we get Liz and Willow on the line?"

Hammond nodded, and Carter grabbed the phone and called Liz's cell phone number. A moment later, a holographic Liz appeared in a flash of light. "Hi," she waved.

Jacob was a little taken aback by this... neither he nor Selmak had much experience with Asgard technology. He kept his reserve since nobody else seemed bothered by it.

"Hi, Liz!" Jack smiled at the pretty brunette. "We're making a research call for your opinion."

Liz nodded. "Okay,"

They explained the situation to her. Her eyes widened, and she asked them to hold on a moment. The hologram disappeared. There was a lull for a few minutes, and then she returned, joined by a holographic Willow, and surprisingly, Daniel, who was still in Sunnydale.

"They've been filled in, but I figured they should be here for the discussion. Willow knows more about this stuff than me."

Hammond nodded. "If Ba'al has somehow acquired an army of vampires, we could have a serious problem on our hands. There's not much chance of them infiltrating the SGC, since we already do thorough medical screenings whenever anybody returns through the gate... but I'm not confident in our ability to hold them off since apparently bullets don't do much to them."

"Well, that's not entirely true, sir. Vampires take damage just like normal people. While a bullet or two won't affect a vampire much, massive trauma from a full-auto burst will put them down temporarily even if it doesn't kill them. Also, if you can get lucky enough to separate the head from the body by any means - gun, whatever, they will dust." Liz explained.

"Good to know," Hammond said thoughtfully.

Liz, Willow, and Daniel nodded, then Liz said, "I've got research to get back to, but if you need us again, just call." With that, and three flashes of light, the holograms were gone.

Sam interjected here. "Sir, the best weapons we have against them are still the Zat-guns. I recommend from now on that the posted guards for the gate room be armed with Zat guns from now on."

"Agreed. Thanks for the update, Jacob. Is there anything else?"

"There is one more thing," Selmak said, sounding nervous.

"What is it, Selmak?" Jack asked.

"The spy was one of our higher-ranking agents. He knew codes, names, the location of our bases. We'd like to request your help... evacuating our homeworld."

* * *

Drusilla/the First watched from the other side of the table as Ba'al implanted a goa'uld larva into a Turok'han. The larva burrowed into the brainstem and attached itself. It was too young to be as advanced as a complete goa'uld, but the presence of the larva helping the brain to function would make the ubervamp much smarter, and the tretonin added to its veins should make it more agile, as well.

Assuming it worked, they'd be able to repeat the process and have an army that was practically unstoppable at night.

Also, if it worked, Ba'al would consider making captains with full-grown goa'uld implanted.

Alas, it didn't work properly yet. The Turok'han died on the operating table after the goa'uld larva was attacked by the vampiric soul and released its venom.

"This is unacceptable," Ba'al said.

Drusilla/the First giggled. "You know what they say, if at first you don't succeed..."

"... find another lab rat?" Ba'al inquired.

Drusilla/the First smirked as the goa'uld motioned for another Turok'han to be brought. "Close enough."


	23. To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

* * *

Chapter 23 - To Sleep, Perchance to Dream Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

General Hammond was flat out, arranging the paperwork for the Tok'Ra to be evacuated to the Alpha site, until another suitable planet could be found for them to re-establish their base on. The Prometheus was being re-routed there as protection against possible Goa'uld attack.

The Tok'ra were nothing if not efficient (once a plan of action could be decided upon. Their usual method of government: talk everything to death and then discuss and debate it a bit, usually led to them being slow movers. However, when a threat of this magnitude loomed over them, and they all agreed on a plan of action, they were very, very fast. Most of them had packed what they needed the day before, and when SG-1 arrived on their planet, they were in the middle of collapsing their crystal tunnels.

Jack was clearly impressed. "I guess the threat of impending doom is a good motivator even for Tok'ra."

Daniel rolled his eyes.

"Sir, I think we've found a good candidate for a base planet." Carter said, returning from a conversation with Anise.

"Already? Carter, we've been here ten minutes!"

"The Tok'ra have been working at this for two days already. They want to be out of here before sunset."

"OK, so then, what did they need us for?"

"Well sir, they want to use our Stargate as an intermediary for several important items and documents which must not be caught by the Goa'uld."

"Why didn't they just ask us that in the first place?" Jack asked, annoyedly glancing over at Jacob, who was still engaged in conversation with Anise.

"Well sir, I believe that they didn't want anybody to know about it. You know how paranoid the Tok'ra are. Only Anise and Selmak know what's in the three cases they want to move to Earth. They don't trust the transport ships with them."

"Just great. What could be so important that they would ask us that?" Jack said, glancing at the three large crates stacked up near the two of them.

"They didn't say, and frankly sir, I don't want to know."

"Righty-oh, then." Jack said.

Teal'c rejoined them at that moment, leading another Tok'ra behind him. "Colonel O'Neill, we've got all ten Tel'tak's packed up and ready to go. The destination has been chosen. I informed SGC command that the Alpha Site will no longer be needed, and they have re-routed the Prometheus to the destination."

Daniel returned halfway through the explanation, along with Jacob. "Wouldn't it make more sense for them to come here and escort the fleet to the new planet?"

"The Promotheus cannot cloak, as our Tel'Tak's can." Jacob explained. "It'd be like placing a beacon out for Ba'al saying, 'Here we are. Kill us!'"

"Alright, then. Everybody's finalizing their jobs. Let's saddle up," Jack said. He nodded to Carter. "You move these through the Gate, and meet us on the other side. Teal'c, you work with the Tok'ra packing up their 'gate."

They all nodded and went to do their jobs.

* * *

Dawn sat quietly. She'd spent a lot of time sitting quietly lately, though in this house quiet was always a relative term. She'd taken to meditating in the backyard. She felt more connected to the earth when she could feel the grass under her, and she loved leaning up against the tree and feeling its slender strand of energy burrowing deep into the earth. The sounds of the Potentials being drilled by Kennedy were almost comforting. it was amazing how quickly new things became routine in this house. She remembered... remembered how empty it had felt when it was just her and Buffy, just after her Mom died. It was nice to feel the house so full of life again.

She'd noticed that the energy she noticed at first just with Willow, and the other magical people, stretched to everybody. Some people had much more, but everybody had at least a tiny gossamer strand tied to the earth.

It had taken her a while to differentiate the colors. She'd shared some of her meditations with Willow, and it had been the witch who herself had felt some of what she was experiencing during her time with the Coven in Devon. She'd taught Dawn about the different kinds of energy the earth, and the sun, gave to plants. The ways that plants, animals, and people were tied to the earth.

Dawn had gained new insight from working with Willow, and was learning new things about her new senses in leaps and bounds.

Also, she'd discovered a whole new sense of wonder when she realized just how far she could reach. She'd spent days riding those threads of energy between people and places on Earth... and then she had found the different kind of threads. Magic was a sort of silver fire, which existed within the earth, and intertwined with the green swirl of life energy every living thing possessed. The green swirls themself were the lives of each and every living thing on earth. From the smallest organisms to the largest and most complex, they represented the spark of life.

The yellow whorls of intellect were also present in everybody, though only the most complex of animals had it; dolphins.. whales to a lesser extent. Apes, and people. It was a kind of sentient mind-energy. Some people had more than others, and she'd noticed that the Roswell gang was ablaze with it.

There were also blue threads, which she'd come to think of as universal energy. While riding the current of silver fire at the earth's core, she'd found the first blue thread. Most things seemed to have it, but it was practically invisible. This thread was the thickest she'd seen, and she began to ride it like all the others... and it took her away from Earth and toward the Sun.

It had taken her a while of traversing the blue strings before she realized that they were links of gravity. The sun held links to all the planets, and she'd explored the solar system. The sun also held strong links to the nearest stars, and she'd been able to surf to those stars. It was a heady experience. A total rush.

Once, though, she'd found something very strange. A massive blue thread that seemed to end on Earth and stretch out.. somewhere.

Discussing the whole thing with Willow afterwards had left them all a little freaked out. Dawn surfing the stars, her consciousness flitting about like some sort of godling, had scared both of them more than a little. Willow was often called a Goddess, but even she had limits. They had yet to find Dawn's. The thread of magic tying Dawn to the earth was much slenderer than Willow's, but it also seemed somehow different in a way they couldn't quantify.

Dawn was still a mystery.

Kyle laughed at their revelation and said, "Well, yeah. I could have told you that weeks ago without all the soul-searching. Dawn's special."

* * *

Ba'al smiled wickedly. He'd gone through five hundred and sixty four Turok-han before the First had come up with the idea of having the Turok-han turn the larvae before they were implanted. This had caused the larva to stop rejecting the Turok-han's dead body, and the Vampire's demon to stop rejecting the larva's living soul.

The larva, sitting in a naquadah-enhanced pool of the Turok-han's blood after the Turok-Han had drunk of the larva's own, was ready to be implanted. It burrowed into the brainstem of the ubervamp, and the scar it caused closed behind it. The process took some time, but when the vampire stopped writhing, its eyes flashed white-gold, and it stood up to face its gods. It then sunk to one knee and saluted.

"Mikey, I think he likes it..." the First said.

Ba'al turned to his lead scientist. "I want this process repeated a thousand times by tomorrow."

The scientist gulped. Once was disturbing, but the idea of herding a thousand of the Turok-han... was seriously deranged. However, his god would kill him for insubordination, at least he had a chance with the Turok-han. He nodded, and left the room to make the arrangements.

"Tomorrow, at Sundown, we will attack the Tok'ra, and remove them from this universe once and for all." Ba'al gloated.

"Gone like pesky rats after fumigation." The First/Buffy replied. "And good riddance!" she said with her normal sly, sexy, I-know-more-than-you smirk.

* * *

Xander was taking his turn sleeping while Isabel drove. They were in Seattle, but hadn't managed to track down this enclave of slayers. Willow had given them a direction stone, but whoever these girls were, they seemed to keep moving, giving Xander and Isabel and Andrew a hard time.

"Ommmmmmmmm..." Andrew hummed, sitting in the second seat of the minibus in a sloppy Lotus position.

Xander opened an eye and looked at Isabel. "Remind me again why we brought him along?"

"Because as a former supervillain, I can help you with... stuff." Andrew replied without opening his eyes, immediately returning to his "Ommm...."

"What are you doing?" Isabel snapped.

"Um... still trying to connect with the Force. The Indians believe that Om is the most sacred sound, and the word of creation. I'm using it to help focus my chi inwards to find my reservoir of Force power."

"Do you even know how many different mythologies you've mixed in that statement?" the pretty girl replied.

"I'm really, really, close!" Andrew argued.

Xander decided to do the adult thing. He stuck his fingers in his ears, and tried to go back to sleep.

* * *

Dawn got up, and looked at Kyle. Really, looked at him. Sitting and meditating for so long had given her a bit of an epiphany. She walked right up to him, tripped him down to the ground, and dove on his lips. At first, he tried to resist, but Dawn knew she was gorgeous and he'd been harboring a secret crush on her for a while now. And from the way his resistance melted under the onslaught of her, well, onslaught, she was pretty sure that he didn't mind a bit. She was actually quite proud of the way she'd been able to make him forget about the possibility of Buffy's wrath. He was really getting into it, and so was she.

Of course, that lasted about ten seconds before the aforementioned Slayer picked Dawn up in one hand, and Kyle up in the other, giving them both death glares. "What are you doing with my little sister?" she asked Kyle.

"Umm... victim here," Kyle defended weakly.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "I'm old enough to kiss a boy, Buffy."

"Not a boy who's over 18, and what you were doing certainly doesn't qualify as just kissing. You were practically screwing him in the backyard!"

"I was not. I just needed to make sure he couldn't get away." Dawn whined.

"Huh?" Buffy said, surprised.

"Huh?" Kyle repeated, looking at Dawn.

"He's hot. And he's hot for me. I just needed to get his attention without him having time to think of all the reasons why he can't be with me. OK, so he's a couple years older than me. When you were my age, your boyfriend was over two hundred years older."

Buffy blushed. "That doesn't mean you can make my mistakes too."

"They're not your mistakes, Buffy. They're MINE!" Dawn screamed. "Don't you get that? I need a life, too!"

Buffy looked a little ashamed, but would not be budged. She lowered them both to the ground, and walked away fuming.

Kyle looked over at Dawn. "She'll calm down, I think."

"I hope so. She's seriously uptight."

"So.. er... you like me, huh?" Kyle beamed.

Dawn looked at her nails and affected nonchalance. "Eh, you're OK."

His grin just got even wider, and she broke down in laughter. "Yeah, you goof. I thought I already confirmed this."

"I think I might need some more 'confirmation'."

"Are you Catholic?"

"Buddhist.. but if you want me to change..."

"Nope. You're good," Dawn said, leaning in to kiss him again.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm back, and much rejuvenated. Getting down to the pointy end of the story, here, and as always your comments and reviews will help me shape the story. I'm having a hard time deciding exactly how the ending should go, but I'm committed to finishing this story (I think it'll end up being 30 or so chapters) before the new year. I have a bunch of other things to upload, but I want to complete this one first!


	24. Friends Who Flee Together

* * *

Chapter 24 - Friends Who Flee Together...

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

"Hold it here," Xander told Isabel. "I think that's them!" He had spotted a group of young girls looking scared for their lives down the last alley.

He hopped out of the van before Isabel even finished coming to a stop, and started running back the other way. Andrew waited for Isabel, and the two followed Xander at a quick walk.

Xander started to walk down the alley, worried for the girls. A moment later, he was hit in the head by something hard, and sharp. He curled up in pain, seeing that the offending object was a girl's high-heeled shoe. "OW!" Xander cried. "Who throws a shoe? Honestly!" he quoted, unwilling to let a good opportunity go by even if he was in pain.

A girl jumped out from behind the dumpster and stood facing him. She . "Stay back, you.... you... I know what you are!"

Xander looked confused. "What am I?"

At this point Andrew and Isabel cleared the corner and froze at the sight before him.

"I can always recognize one of your kind. Nobody from _this_ decade would ever have _that_ fashion sense!" She pointed at Xander's Hawaiian shirt and khaki pants with his wallet chained to his belt.

Xander looked down at himself, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Take this!" the girl said, bringing up a large wooden cross and pushing it towards his face.

"Huh?" Xander was even more confused.

It was at this point that Isabel and Andrew collapsed in a fit of laughter. The girls other young girls looked up to see what was happening when they heard the sound.

"I," Xander said, finally getting it, "Am NOT a vampire!" He grabbed the cross for a moment and then showed her his hand.

"But... then why are you dressed like that?" another girl asked from wherever she was hiding in the alley.

Fresh snickers came from Andrew, and Isabel stood up and walked over to throw her arms around Xander to comfort him. "He's just a lovable dork." she said.

"Who are you people?"

"We were sent to find a bunch of girls who are being chased by eyeless freaks, and give them a lift to Sunnydale."

He was instantly rushed by a dozen young girls gushing their thanks, and Isabel had to interpose herself between them and her boyfriend to prevent several of them from getting grabby. "We have a van." She said. It's just around the corner."

They turned to the end of the alley, but their way was now blocked by a dozen Bringers. They said nothing, they saw nothing, and they waited for nothing. They just moved in for the kill. For all of the kills.

* * *

As the last of the Tok'ra was packing up their stargate, Jacob/Selmak was directing the final team. It was dark now, and they hadn't wanted to take so long. SG-1 had departed about an hour ago just before sundown with the three long crates headed for Earth. Anise had gone with them to watch over them. Jacob wished the Tok'ra could just leave their gate here, but they mustn't leave behind any signs of their presence. If they'd had any larger ships, such as a Ha'Tak, they'd be able to install the gate on the ship to keep it mobile. Tel'tak class ships were just too small to generate the necessary power. Even the slightly larger Al'Kesh were too small.

"How long till we've disconnected the Gate and are ready to transport it aboard my ship?" Jacob asked a nearby technician.

"Another ten minutes." Came the reply. Jacob nodded.

Another person came up beside him and Jacob turned and provided the messenger with his attention. "Selmak, the team responsible for packing up the perimeter should have been back an hour ago, but they never reported in, and all attempts to communicate have failed."

"What?" Jacob was startled. Selmak, the calmer of the two, took control while Jacob dealt with his anger. His modulated voice was firm. "Send one scout out to the perimeter to find out what's going on. He has fifteen minutes. If he's not back then, we're leaving without him."

The messenger nodded and ran off.

"Just what we need," Jacob said. Selmak was no more pleased with this development.

His thinking was interrupted by a scream which came from over near the gate.

"What's going on?" he shouted.

Zat'ni'kel fire answered him, along with a useless and belated, "We're under attack!"

The oddly dissonant multitonal screech of Zat guns could be heard in several places around the gate. Jacob drew his own Zat and moved forward, adopting a proper tactical walking posture low to the ground.

The screaming had mostly died out now, as had the Zat fire, but none of his men had checked in yet.

Most of the lights were trained on the gate, since any ground-based attack was expected to come from there, and there hadn't been any ships detected on their Tel'tak's short-range radar, either. It should have been impossible for anybody to sneak up on them undetected, but as Jacob got closer to the Gate, the sight that awaited him definitely showed that there was a powerful enemy nearby. It was gruesome. More than that... it was _carnal_. What had, a few moments ago, been people, had been reduced to so many cuts of meat. Parts were everywhere, and blood covered the ground liberally.

Jacob looked around, and he saw shadows in every direction, advancing on him. He fired his Zat as fast as he could, disintegrating a couple of them, but they were simply too many. They piled on him, and all he could see were their skull-like faces and their cold dead eyes as he felt their talons rip him to shreds. The last thing he ever thought was, "I love you, Sam."

* * *

Dawn was enjoying a snuggle on the couch with Kyle. She didn't know why she hadn't done this earlier. Buffy still hadn't said more than three words to her since Dawn had told her off the previous day, but she knew Buffy would eventually accept it. Maybe. right now, she was in cuddle-heaven and couldn't worry about much else.

She glanced over at Liz, who was enjoying her own time in Max's arms, and smiled. Liz gave her a sly thumbs up, and Dawn's smile turned smug, and she giggled.

"What are you laughing about, Summers?" Kyle asked.

"Ah, I own you now. You're mine. Property of me." Dawn teased.

"At least I don't have to wear a stamp on my forehead."

"I'll brand it on you somewhere else, later," came her reply in a wicked tone.

"Hold on, now, nobody said anything about permanent marks or altering bodies..."

"Oh, relax, you goof. I don't need to brand you. I know you're helpless against my feminine charms."

"Whoa there, Dawn," Buffy said coming into the room. "I was just about set to forgive you for yesterday and move on, but we must clarify this right now..." she took a deep breath. "You are way too young to have feminine charms."

"Buffy, I'm sixteen! And my boobs are bigger than yours."

"So not true!" Buffy said indignantly, glancing in dismay at her sister and trying not to be caught comparing the two of them. "You're my cute kid sister, girlie, and don't you forget it." She harumphed and flounced away.

"I don't get it. I'd have thought she'd be over this by now." Dawn sighed.

It was at this point that Liz spoke up. "She's jealous, and she doesn't like that fact."

"Say what?" Kyle asked, apparently confused. For somebody who could be so insightful in many things, he could be really clueless when it came to girls.

"Buffy doesn't like competing with her little sister and losing."

"Buffy? Competing with me?" Dawn asked. "That's absurd! I'm no competition for her! She's mature, and gorgeous, and the Slayer, and we don't even have the same taste in guys. Not that that's stopped most of the guys I've liked from having crushes on _her_, but..."

"In this case, you are having the same taste in guys." Liz replied, turning over and lazily snuggling into Max, who was practically asleep at this point.

"What? No, you can't mean... Kyle?" Dawn looked dismayed. "Buffy has a thing for Kyle?"

Kyle looked stunned, then slightly proud. Max, never once opening his eyes, added. "Sucks to be you, Kyle."

The Buddhist boy almost laughed till he realized that Max's voice hadn't held a single iota of sarcasm. He stopped and started to think about it, and his expression was suddenly terrified. "It sucks to be me." he whispered to himself.

"I hope I can make it better," Dawn purred, worried but determined not to let Buffy steal him.

He knew he was doomed.

* * *

"Sir, we've just lost the subspace transponder signal from the Tok'ra gate."

"They must have gotten on their way. Have the Prometheus inform us the moment they're ready for us to send their cargo on to their destination." Hammond replied.

"Yes sir," the duty Lieutenant responded, turning back to monitoring his computer.

"Well Colonel, SG-1's got a five-day furlough while we're waiting for the gate to make the trip and be set up on the other end. In the meantime, I want you to stay here and keep an eye on Anise."

"Oh, no. I hate Anise. I don't trust her as far as I can throw her, sir. Why me?"

"For precisely that reason, Colonel. We can't exactly confine a diplomatic guest to quarters, but we also can't have her wandering around the base."

Jack looked crestfallen. Then an idea came to him, and he smiled at the General. "Sir, Anise is a scientist. Maybe she'd like to visit the moon base?"

"She probably would, Colonel, but it's not _our_ moon base, and we can't just start handing out invitations."

"I could call and ask Liz."

"Liz is in Sunnydale taking a break." the General shot back.

"Area 51 then?"

"Under lockdown for annual audit."

"Area 52?"

"That area is restricted to necessary personnel only by direct order of the President. I couldn't even get in there _myself_."

"She could stay with Sam?"

"Do you really think it's fair to shove her off on Major Carter like that, Colonel? Besides, Samantha will want to work on her own projects without Anise constantly looking over her shoulder."

Jack sighed and resigned himself to his fate. Five days of Freya telling him how handsome he was, and Anise telling him what an underevolved ape he was. Joy.

A hologram materialised in front of Hammond, resolving into the form of Michael. "Hi, General. Jack."

"What can I do for you, Mr. Guerin?"

"I'm on the moon base, and I'm just checking in. The little grey guys told me that they've just received reports of an unknown pulse of energy coming out of Ba'al's known space a little over a week ago. It's taken a while for the reports to filter through, but I thought you'd want to know. I'll have them beam down the data, or whatever they do."

"Thank you, Mr. Guerin. I can't say I look forward to reading it because in my experiences things like this are invariably major headaches, but we appreciate the intel."

Michael nodded, and started to reach for what the others assumed were the hologram projector controls.

"Wait!" Jack said. Hammond shot him a warning glance, but he pretended not to see it and asked. "We have with us a guest, a high-ranking Tok'ra scientist. I was wondering if the Asgard would mind having her there for a few days, showing her around. She might even help with the research."

"Let me ask." Michael said. He reached up again and the hologram vanished, only to reappear a minute later. The whole minute, Hammond stood glaring gruffly at Jack, who sheepishly remained quiet.

Michael reappeared and informed them that it was OK with the Asgard and they'd be in touch a little later to hammer out the details. The hologram disappeared once again and Jack beamed. "Fishing pond, here I come," he said, turning to walk away.

Hammond just shook his head in disbelief.


	25. Dawning Revelations

* * *

Chapter 25 - Dawning Realizations

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Ba'al smirked as his lieutenant left after delivering reports of their partial victory on the former Tok'ra homeworld. They had missed the greater portion of the Tok'ra, but had managed to capture their Chappa'ai. Using stolen Ancient technology, Ba'al had actually been able to find the last address it had dialed... but unfortunately for him, this was not the location of the new Tok'ra base, but an address well known to be a thorn in his side already: Earth, the home of the Tau'ri.

Mixed blessing. At least, without their Chappa'ai, the Tok'ra would be in disarray for some time and be unable to effectively rely on their allies the Tau'ri, who had few ships, though they were strong due to the meddling of the Asgard.

But now, he had dealt a blow to the Tok'ra which would affect the Tau'ri as well, he might have an opportunity to move up his timetable against the System Lords before they could recoil.

"What do you think, lover boy, care to go on a rampage of destruction?" Buffy/the First asked.

"I know just who will make the best target... It's time to finish crushing Anubis. If we can capture his advanced technology and add that to the advantage that my Turok'fa warriors give us, we can complete our goal of destroying the Tau'ri and ruling the galaxy."

"That's your goal. My goal is... my goal." Buffy/the First reminded him. "But you're right. Anubis is the next logical step. Make it fast, though. The Slayer and her lackies are getting close to figuring things out and we can't afford that until it's too late for them to affect the outcomes."

Ba'al nodded, almost a bow, to the First, and turned to his chambers to think up a nasty plan for Anubis.

* * *

"... and that's how a hyper drive works." Andrew said. "If you wanted, you could even increase..."

"Andrew?" Isabel asked sweetly.

"Yes, your Highness?" Andrew replied, charmed as always by the beautiful girl and imagining himself to be some kind of gallant knight protector.

"Would you mind horribly shutting up?" Isabel asked, with a lot more edge in her tone. Xander shivered, glad she wasn't mad at him that way. It was bad enough being shut up in a van in which you were annoying a dozen teenage girls; it was worse to have Isabel mad at you. Way worse.

"Um... OK," Andrew mumbled, stunned at the sheer malevolence in the pretty girl's voice, and that she'd turned it toward him.

"Thank you so much!" The leader of the ragtag bunch of girls said. "I'm Melody. How did you do that thingy? Was that magic?"

"Um..." Isabel wasn't sure how to explain how she'd stunned the Bringers properly. She didn't know if these girls were quite ready for the alien revelation. She wasn't even entirely sure she understood how she'd done it, or rather, what it was that she'd done. Unlike Turok-Hans, Bringers relied heavily on the normal regions of the human brain. She'd just sort of reached out and... what? Cross-connected synapses? Generated extra electric charge giving them all epileptic seizures? She just remembered the feeling of supreme confidence she'd had with Xander there holding her hand, like she knew nothing could touch her. "... yeah. It was magic. I only know a few 'spells', but they're all really useful."

Melody smiled. "Cool."

* * *

Dawn sat in her meditation position. Willow sat across from her, across a single candle infused with horehound and bay leaves to aid concentration, focus, and understanding. Their hands were joined, and their minds were calm. Willow was just along for the ride, intrigued by what Dawn had told her of her past jaunts.

Dawn decided to begin at the magical core of the earth. Together, they followed the thick rope of magic which tied Willow to the center of the earth and through it to all living things. They sunk deep within the earth to the core of fire, reveling in the beauty of its light. Willow gave her the mental equivalent of a smile, and Dawn began to look for the blue strand of energy that would lead them to the sun, and from the sun, off to the other stars.

Dawn had just located the thread she wanted when she felt something that was simultaneously completely alien, like it was... wrong... against the laws of the universe, and comfortingly familiar. It was the peculiar sensation of millions of tiny blue threads being pulled from nearly everything local, weaving together to connect to a point on the earth. She didn't understand what it was, and moved them to investigate. She saw that the blue braid formed a circle... like the cloth covering on an electrical cable almost... curious, she moved closer and Willow followed. As soon as their mental selves touched the terminus of the unnaturally thick blue braid, they were pulled along uncontrollably through the vortex..

* * *

Michael and Maria were making out when the call came from the SGC to send up Anise. Michael gave an annoyed sigh: he'd just gotten to second base, and it had better be good. Maria had been really into it this time, and he might have gotten laid. Alien sex was not to be missed... hour-long orgasms were a powerful draw card. But now, he had to answer the call, because Loki and Heimdall were busy with an experiment and couldn't be disturbed.

He put his hand on the control by the wall to activate the voice comm.

"Michael here."

"Hello Michael, this is General Hammond. Anise has finished her business here and is ready to come up for her 'tour' as arranged."

Michael glanced at the clock. It had been two hours already! Maybe next time he should skip all Maria's foreplay crap and just get to the good stuff. "Alright, give me a few minutes to get set up here, and I'll beam her up."

"Thank you, Michael."

"Anybody you want to send, including her, should be in your conference room in ten, er.. make it twenty minutes."

"Excellent. Will do. Thanks, son."

"You're welcome, General," he replied. He looked at Maria. She seemed almost as annoyed as he was at missing out on the sex, and Michael had been getting her good and into it.

He raised an eyebrow. She responded, "We can do it..." to which both of their responses was to rearrange themselves hurriedly under the covers and go to it.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Anise and Major Paul Davis disappeared in a flash of light from the main conference room of the SGC. George Hammond was very happy to have them out of his hair. Well, not out of his hair since he'd devoted a significant portion of his life since he turned thirty to going bald, but... God dammit! These thoughts meant only one thing: he'd been spending too much time hanging around Jack.

Jack was pushed out of his mind though as the base klaxon sounded. He trotted into the control room and immediately inquired of the gate technician what was going on. "Unscheduled offworld activation?"

"No sir. Gate reads normal."

George was confused for a moment, until the phone rang. He picked it up. "Hammond here."

Listening to the voice on the other end was not good news.

"They stole WHAT!?" George listened patiently. "Well, scramble all available F-302's!"

* * *

Barnes and Franco sat at the controls of the Tel'tak they had just stolen from the Tau'ri. They pointed it straight away from the atmosphere, trying to get out of the atmosphere to a reasonable hyperspace entry point before the Tau'ri's fighters could be scrambled to follow them.

"I am not sure we will escape." Barnes said.

"I am reading Tau'ri fighters coming up behind us now." Franco warned.

"What is the time to intercept?"

"They will be in firing range of their weapons in twenty-seven seconds at current relative speeds," Franco replied.

"They are much faster than we are."

"Yes. How long till we've cleared the atmosphere to a safe jump point?"

"Approximately twenty-five seconds."

"They will get a shot at us before we can escape."

"Yes." They both thought pensively, flying in a straight line away from Earth's atmosphere and gravity well. Approximately one second before they'd be within firing range of the earth fighters, they turned sharply at an angle forcing the earth fighters to attain a new lock before firing. Only one fighter ended up getting a clear shot, and the impact was absorbed more-or-less harmlessly by the Tel'tak's shields before they shot to hyperspace and disappeared.

* * *

Buffy knocked on the door. She didn't want to disturb the two of them, but it was dinnertime, and with so many young potentials in the house, if they weren't there promptly, it would all be eaten before they got there.

"Hey guys? Dinner?"

Nothing answered her but silence. "They must be in a trance or something," she murmured to herself. Opening the door, she saw the two girls laying on the floor, passed out. "You overexerted yourselves? What if the big bad comes calling, Will? You're my big guns, I need you!"

Buffy moved over to grab pillows from Dawn's bed, and moved to her friend and sister to put a pillow under each of their heads. It was then that she noticed something.

They were cold. Not as in freezing, throw a blanket over her cold, but as in, precious little lingering body heat, cold.

She looked at them more closely, and noticed they weren't breathing. Her eyes flared in surprise and worry as she flew to Dawn and desperately checked her pulse.

The worst moment of her life came then, for, after a moment of denial, she finally allowed herself to realize that this wasn't her friend, and her sister lying on the floor. It was their cold, dead bodies.

* * *

Author's Note: I know I'm evil. Feel free to tell me so in review form! Sorry about the short chapter, but after that, I couldn't bring myself to write any more for this update. There will be another update within the next couple of days, though, so stay tuned!

I could use a little feedback about where you guys think the plotline is heading. I've been doing my best to foreshadow the story without giving it away, and although this was originally planned for 30 chapters, I can easily see it going another 20 if I let it. I've given us so many loose ends to tie, and that's not including the main plot arc! So if there's anything you think I'm not doing enough of (besides the FBI Special Unit subplot, which as you can see, I haven't forgotten) let me know!


	26. An EinsteinRosen Bridge Too Far

* * *

Chapter 26 - An Einstein-Rosen Bridge Too Far

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

The wormhole closed as SG-15 returned home to the SGC. This planet was a regular stop-off for the SGC, one of the few places willing to trade them naquadah. This small, dense world on the close edge of Goa'uld-occupied space had been long forgotten by whatever Goa'uld had originally owned and colonized it. Daniel, the few times he'd been here, had remarked that it felt a lot like Abydos to him, which always caused his eyes to retreat into some sort of distant nostalgic haze.

Daniel wasn't here now. Which was unfortunate, because if he had been, he might be able to tell Dawn and Willow where 'here' was.

Also, they were pretty curious about why they didn't seem to have bodies.

That's not to say they were some sort of invisible, intangible ghosts. No, it was worse than that.

They were energy. The energy that they'd cast out to go on their 'trip' had been caught up in the singularity at the terminus of the wormhole. And when the energy anchoring the wormhole had been turned off, they were essentially slingshotted back to this end of the wormhole. Sam would have found the process fascinating. Willow, who was also geeking out about it just a little bit, was more concerned with the fact that their 'silver threads' were gone. They were dead.

"It's kinda tingly," Dawn remarked.

"Yeah..." Willow replied, "I don't know how it's working... but all the electricity that normally runs through our bodies, still is running through our... well, not bodies. But since there's no nerves and stuff for it to run through, it's just sparking through the air. Which it shouldn't be able to do."

Dawn regarded Willow, and realized that she wasn't a random collection of sparkles in the air, but she could follow the lines made by the little sparks and see the general shape of a person. And in the center, where Willow's stomach would be if she had a stomach, was a tiny green sun which gave off a slightly eerie green light, and occasionally flowed out to mingle with the other sparks. Surrounding the green sun was a pool of silver fire which filled up what would normally be her torso.

Dawn looked down at herself too, to see a cluster of balls in her abdomen-space, a green ball half the size of Willow's, with yellow, blue, red, purple, and orange balls of roughly the same size intermingled, forming a blindingly white spot in the middle where they all overlapped. She too had a pool of silver fire surrounding it all, but it didn't fill her as it did Willow, but danced around her little multicolored suns.

"Ooh," Willow exclaimed. "Pretty!"

"Wills?"

"Yeah Dawnie?"

"Any idea where we are or how we got here?"

"No on 1, Yes on 2... but only a guess."

"Will I care?"

"No. I say we look around and see if there's any place around here where we can find a..."

"Wills?" Dawn interrupted.

"Is it supposed to do that?"

"What?"

"Your green ball thingy..."

Willow looked down and they both watched as Willow's green core seemed to sink out of her, falling slowly towards the ground.

"I'm not doing that." Willow claimed.

"What's happening. I've seen that green ball before, Will. That's your life force!." As she said that, the pool of silver fire started to follow it out as if all of Willow's light was swirling down a drain in the ground.

"My life's leaving me? I'm still here. And my magic too? I can still feel it..."

"Hmm..." Dawn said. "Try some magic."

Willow cast her consciousness out and found a bird of some kind flying nearby. "Thicken!" she said. A green thread stretched up from the earth to her belly, and then in the blink of an eye, a tendril of silver fire shot up along it and then out to make a circle in the air around the bird, which instantly froze.

"See?" Willow demonstrated. "Working."

"Maybe..." Dawn concentrated and moved her sight like she had become accustomed to, following the tendril of green down to Willow's ball of life, which had reached the center of the planet and begun to stretch out in other directions, as if growing roots in the world. Dawn watched in awe as the thin strand of green and silver connecting Willow to this planet gradually grew thicker and thicker, until it was a rope nearly as thick as the one she'd had on earth.

"Wicked..." Dawn said.

"She's coming along nicely," said a voice from behind Willow.

Dawn and Willow both turned to the voice and faced Oma.

"So Daniel was wrong? It's Willow?"

"Um... hi... a little out of the loop, here. Dawn? Help a Scooby out?"

"Oh, right! Willow, this is Oma Desala. Oma, Willow Rosenberg."

"A pleasure, Willow."

"So... Willow's Mother Earth?"

"I think she is coming to that level, yes." Oma replied. "You have had a breakthrough yourself, Dawn, if you've taught somebody else how to ascend. Even partially, as you have."

"But... but... it was an accident... and with the blue... and swirly... and then the big, sucky thing, and then, we were just here like this."

Oma suddenly looked slightly worried. "You haven't ascended? But.. you're existing as pure energy. That is the largest and hardest step on the path to ascension..."

"All I know is we were surfing around the currents of magic and gravity. I've been learning to do it for a while now, moving along the lines of power. I've been a few stars away from Earth before, but... I was always tied to my body, and then I saw this big, like, weaving of blue energy, and I went to investigate it, and... we got stuck."

"Weaving of blue energy?"

"I see the energy in colors. Life is green... magic is silver... I think gravity is blue. Yellow is mind, I don't really know what the other colors mean yet."

"I see... and you say you saw a weaving of gravity..."

"Yeah," Willow piped up. "I saw it there too. It was like a spiral-woven tunnel of gravity."

"The Astra Porta."

"The who-a what-a?" Dawn crinkled her eyebrows. Languages, she loved. Science was annoying at the best of times.

"The Astra Porta is an Ancient device that creates wormholes. I believe that your people call it the 'Stargate'."

* * *

"Last stop. Everybody out." Xander said. He smiled as he turned off the old Volkswagen and hopped out.

"Thank god, finally!" Isabel said, stretching as she got out.

Xander watched her as she stretched, her body well-shown in her tight little spaghetti-strap tank. The other girls watched him watch her, and a couple pointed and giggled. Isabel smiled wickedly and then went inside, the other girls following her like ducklings. Xander shook his head, and brought up the rear. Once inside, he started to give the Speech.

"Girls, welcome to Slayer Central. First things first," Xander looked around for the young brunette, "Dawn... she's probably around her somewhere... will sort out your room assignments. We have... ah, here's the Slayer now," he interrupted himself as Buffy came down the stairs. "Buffy Summers, this is... Buffy?" Xander had noticed the extreme level of 'disheveled' Buffy was sporting. She didn't say anything, she just ran at Xander, and buried her face in his chest, and burst out in a fresh round of tears.

Xander, shocked, put his arms around Buffy and hugged her for all he was worth, knowing that eventually she would tell him what was going on. It was all he could do to stroke her hair and make soothing noises while casting a questioning look at everybody over her shoulder at Isabel. Isabel nodded and said, "I'll go find Wills or Dawn or Kyle..."

Buffy burst out in a loud round of sobs at that point, and Isabel ran upstairs, trying to find somebody to explain what was happening with Buffy.

Xander just stood there, preoccupied with a sobbing slayer.

And then there was a scream.

Isabel ran downstairs, screaming, and slammed into Xander's less-occupied side. The two girls were now BOTH sobbing all over him. "Xander..." Isabel managed to get out. "Dawn and Willow..." He looked down expectantly.

"They're dead," Buffy said, a barely audible whisper as if afraid that as long as she didn't say it out loud, it wasn't true.

"What?" Xander exclaimed.

"Their... bodies... are upstairs." Isabel said.

"What happened, Buffy?" Xander said with a look of rage in his eyes. "Was it the First? Did anybody else get hurt?" Xander was changed. Gone was the happy-go-lucky jokester slash goofy sidekick. Xander's whole demeanor had changed. He was all cool military precision now, icy and hard as steel, but those who knew him knew that the sun would feel like the arctic compared to the fire that had been lit inside him. There was only one thing Xander could not stand. Besides diet soda. If someone hurt his girls, they had to pay.

"I don't know. We weren't attacked. I just went up to get them for dinner so they could eat before the potentials got back from their training with Giles... and they were cold and dead." Buffy sounded like such a little, lost girl.

Xander handed her over to Isabel, and left to go upstairs and take a look for himself.

Something had happened, and he would find out what. Period.

* * *

Dawn and Willow were slowly becoming used to their fate. Oma had slipped off as sneakily as she came. It was like having Batman for a spirit guide.

"Wills, Oma said there were people here, before she left. I think we'll freak them out, though, if they see us like this."

"I can glamour up the illusion of our bodies," Willow said. "Hold on a minute."

Willow closed her eyes and bowed her head, and then a minute later, the illusion of their bodies began to appear around them. At least, she thought it was their bodies.

Willow looked like herself, but as though somebody had painted her portrait and decided she should be airbrushed a little for posterity. She still looked like Willow, but subtle differences had made a vast improvement in her appearance. She was _hot_!

"Vain much, Wills?" Dawn giggled.

"Huh?" Willow asked.

"You look like a supermodel version of yourself. Your boobs are bigger, your cheeks are slightly more pronounced, your lips are subtly fuller... It's all really subtle, but all of it together is enough to notice. Why did you think you needed to be prettier?"

Willow was really confused. "I have no idea what you mean. I didn't change my looks... the illusion should be just plain old me."

Dawn giggled. "Sure, Wills. Whatever. Anyway, let's head over to that town and see what we can find out."

* * *

Barnes and Franco's Tel'tak came out of hyperspace over Anubis' homeworld. They were planning on allying themselves with Anubis, but they were fairly shocked to find it surrounded by other Goa'uld ships. It didn't take long for them to get noticed.

"Unidentified Cargo vessel, you are entering restricted space. All of Anubis' former territories and holdings are now property of Ba'al. Change course to approach vector and land for inventory."

It was something that shocked them both, but Barnes slowly broke into a smile. "Acknowledged. Changing course for approach." He cut off the comms.

"Why are you so happy?" Franco asked.

"We came to Anubis because he's strong. But I didn't like him. Perhaps this Ba'al will be a better fit."

It didn't take long for the little cargo ship to make its way to the Ha'tak's hangar and land. Franco and Barnes strode out, and were met by a Jaffa patrol. Upon learning that they were Goa'uld, the Jaffa lieutenant contacted his master for instructions. The two Goa'uld were given an honor guard and escorted to meet Ba'al.

They took it as their due.

* * *

Xander rifled through Dawn's neatly labeled magic kits. He thought they were neatly labeled anyway. All the labels were written in other languages. The ones in Latin he _almost_ understood. The rest could be anything.

There had to be something in here that could help him find out what had happened. Buffy was still in tears, Isabel was keeping her company. Buffy needed her time to grieve. He knew that sooner or later, she'd snap out of it and then be just as driven as he was.

He needed magical help. He toyed with the idea of calling Anya, but she probably wouldn't help him. Vengeance demons were not exactly known for helping those who've wronged them in the past, after all. No, he needed real, expert help.

Dawn's things were just a last ditch effort to avoid doing what he needed to do.

Stalking out of the room and heading straight down to the kitchen, he steeled himself for his very last resort.

He had to call Angel.

* * *

Max, Liz, and Giles arrived home with the potentials and while out, had quite a good time with them. However, walking in Buffy's front door was like a smack in the face. Max, learning what had happened, ran straight upstairs, while Liz went for her bag and got out the healing stones.

Giles sat down to have a few moments to grieve in his silent, British way, and then moved to hold and comfort Buffy.

Max laid his hand on Willow's body and it began to glow slightly. Instantly, he could feel that something wasn't right. It took him a couple of minutes of poking around to realize what was bothering him. "It should be medically impossible."

"What should?" Liz asked, entering the room to see Max talking to himself next to Willow's body.

"They've only been dead for a couple of hours."

"So?"

"So, recently deceased bodies have some kind of ambient energy in their systems."

Liz nodded. "Yeah, that's what causes rigor mortis - the chemical reactions in their bodies keep happening, and energy released into cells still seeps out until the cells' fuel supplies are expended."

"And their bodies... they're completely devoid of any and all energy. Their magic, their psychic energy, natural electricity, everything."

"What could cause that?"

"I don't know. But suffice to say I don't think they just died."

They looked at each other significantly, and then ran downstairs.

* * *

"So they're not dead?" Xander asked.

"Well, technically, yes, they're dead." Max said.

"But Max and I talked about it and we think that there's a possibility that their energies... went somewhere else." Liz added.

"Huh?"

"Think of it this way, Xander. They're dead because their minds, their souls, no longer inhabit their bodies." Liz explained.

"As good a definition of dead as any," Xander snarked.

"Fine, But what if their minds and souls just got cut off from their bodies, but they're still out there somewhere?"

"You mean Wills and Dawn are like, ghosts?"

"Not exactly." Max said. "But I think that if we can somehow find their consciousnesses, I could _maybe_ reattach their bodies to them with the healing stones."

Xander's eyes bugged out of his head. He stood for a moment, staring at the both of them, looking at first Liz, then Max. Then he took a deep breath, and let it out with a sigh.

"So then, what are we waiting for?" he asked. "Let's tell the others and then saddle up!"

* * *

Author's Note: I apologize to those of you who've been waiting for this. Also, I apologize for my tendency to go all pseudo-science sci-fi geek on you. I've read a lot of stuff, and I always think about how things could feasibly work. I do believe in magic (as the manifestation of collective will - ie. whatever enough people believe will tend to happen) but I've always been a scientist at heart.

Who guessed right on the Dawn/Willow/Mother Earth thing?

I promise I'll get another chapter out as soon as I can. Having been on a break for so long, I forgot how much I love writing this! But churning out this chapter has inspired me, and I've already got half of the next chapter written.


	27. Trading Up

* * *

Chapter 27 - Trading Up

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

They had hidden themselves until they could see what the people of the town were wearing. Willow adjusted their glamour to include local-type clothes, and then they strolled into the town. At first, nobody paid them any notice.

It was Dawn who noticed the change. People were looking at Willow.

OK, not people, men. Staring. Slack-jawed. At first, it made Dawn giggle. Then she took in the looks on the mens' faces and thought about it for a minute. At that point, she moved from amused to worried.

Willow, of course, was oblivious. She refused to believe she looked any different than she normally did.

Dawn, however, noticed the change. She was more than a little attracted to Willow herself, and knew that wasn't the normal state of things. After all... it was _Wills_. But thinking and studying the effect she realized it wasn't her looks, Or not just her looks. After her core merged with this planet, Willow had started to exude an earthiness that.. _Is it earthiness if this isn't Earth?_ Dawn thought. _Stick to the important train of thought, Dawn..._ she reminded herself. Willow just seemed to be everything that was warm and good and familiar. To anybody who saw her.

Dawn concentrated for a moment and accomplished the peculiar twist of her mind that allowed her to 'see' the lines of energies in the world. The pool of magic in Willow and the thick rope that tied her to the core of the planet was very bright. She also saw something she didn't notice before. Watching more closely, she spotted the nearly infinitesimal thread that seemed to go off in a random direction through the ground - not toward the planet's core, but some other direction off at an odd angle.

Dawn sat down, and began to move herself along that thread. It was just as easy as ever, and she passed through the planet, moving along the thread faster and faster, curious to see where it went. She surpassed the speed of light. She moved at the speed of thought, traversing the prodigious length of the thread until she recognized its terminus... Earth. Even so far away, Willow was still tied to the magic of the Earth. Dawn supposed that made it easier for her to get back home, but she didn't think Willow could travel along her own thread. Dawn had traveled along her own thread in the past, but that was only when the other end was anchored to her body. She had no idea what would happen if....

All of a sudden, through the link she still held to her body, she heard a scream, While she was out here pondering the mysteries of the universe, Willow could be getting into trouble. She turned around along the thread of magic, and snapped back to Willow.

* * *

Willow saw Dawn move to sit down, and smiled at the younger girl. Imagine being tired when you didn't even have a real body. Tsk tsk. Willow wandered around the town's market, moving along the rows of tables and booths admiring pretty things and useful things. In a town like this, far more of the latter. She had noticed some of the women giving her dirty looks. _Is it wrong to be gay, here?_ she asked herself. _They're looking at me like I just kicked their puppy. Can they tell?_ She got increasingly worried. _I hope they're not too religious..._

She stopped at a stall where they sold pretty little pieces of jewelry made of cut rocks and crystals of various colors. There were bracelets, necklaces... even a few rings. The non-stone parts seemed to be twisted wire made of some kind of metal that was simultaneously golden and dark. She pointed to a necklace and smiled at the girl in the stall. "This one's very pretty." She said.

The girl, who was only about thirteen Willow guessed, hissed at her. "It doesn't suit you." she snarked.

Willow drew her hand back like she'd been bitten. _Oh my god, they're religious. And they know I'm gay. And a witch. I bet they can tell!_

Willow turned away and headed back toward Dawn, walking across the square instead of around it, this time. She was about halfway there when she heard a loud crash; a cart had run into the side of a stall and the driver was being yelled at furiously by the merchant. Willow, avoiding the conflict, ran for Dawn's position. Her path was suddenly blocked by two large men, looking at her with open lust.

"Hello beautiful," the first one said. "Care for some company?" He was well over six feet tall, and built like a small mountain. His dark hair was matted with dirt but even so he might almost be handsome if he hadn't been missing several teeth, betraying a propensity for getting into fights.

_Ugh_, Willow thought. "Um, no thanks, fellas. I'm just going over there to meet up with my friend."

The smaller man, well under six feet but just as broadly built as his friend, turned and looked at Dawn as Willow pointed. "She's a pretty little one, too," the man said, "Too young, but we could teach her a few things..." He was not even almost-handsome. He was repulsive, with a big, bulbous nose and breath that smelt like a garbage dump must in mid-summer. His stocky build and short stature made him look like he had no neck.

"I don't think so, guys.... thanks for the offer though," Willow said. She made to step around the men, but the taller one grabbed her by the waist. "Not so fast, girlie. You're too pretty to let you go."

"Get _off_ me, you _brute_!"

* * *

"Get _off_ me, you _brute_!" was the first thing Dawn heard when she woke up. It was definitely Willow's voice. She was halfway across the square, being held against her will by a big, burly man and his friend.

That boggled her mind when she thought about it. _How can they hold her? We don't have bodies!_ "Wills!" she called out, running over.

Both thugs turned toward Dawn and she looked them over. One grinned wide showing a smile full of missing teeth. The other looked more or less like an owl who has just rotated his head around. The taller (who Dawn had decided to refer to as _Toothless_) one had Wills around the waist and she was kicking and screaming. She looked around quickly, and most people were occupied with sorting out the mess from the cart accident a couple minutes before. Those who were left, mostly comprised of women with a couple young boys and old men, were pretending not to notice.

Dawn knew she'd never be able to put a dent in these guys. She didn't have any weapons, and she doubted her punches would be hard enough to do more than give the men-mountains much more than a massage.

Then she had an idea. "Hang on, Wills, I'm coming!" she shouted. Shifting her perception, she noted all the blue threads tied to people and things all around the market. She noticed big ropes tied to the stone buildings and grabbed for them with her mind and magic. She gathered some of the blue threads from every building around and threw them over the burly men.

The effect was immediate. Both men dropped like stones, pressed flat against the ground by the sudden increase of the effect of gravity between them and the planet. The buildings all groaned slightly being suddenly lightened; She hadn't taken much, but it did cause the stones to rub as they shifted infinitesimally.

She ran to Willow and helped the girl up. "Are you OK, Wills?"

Willow sighed. "Yeah. Are they gonna be OK?"

"Yeah. They'll live. Sadly."

"Good." Willow said.

"So.. how come we can touch each other, and they can touch us?"

Willow blushed and looked sheepish. "I think that when I designed our illusion bodies, I kinda used too much power, what with the whole this-planet's-magic-vs-earth's-magic-combination thing. Our bodies are real."

Dawn's face sunk. "But.. but.. our bodies are still back on earth! I found out how to get back there and let everybody know what's going on, but I don't know if I can reinhabit my old body while I've got a new one."

Dawn had a horrible thought, suddenly. She ran over to a shop that was selling silver plates and tilted one up to look at herself.

She screeched, and dropped the plate back down, then ran back to Willow. Stormed, actually. She looked up at the other girl. She hadn't noticed that she had been looking up at her for a while, but she just assumed that Willow had made herself taller with her supermodel do-over. But it wasn't that at all. She grabbed Willow's hand, and then dragged her out of the town and back toward where they had started on this planet. It was only when they got back that Dawn turned on a dime and attempted to glower up at the redhead.

"How could you, Willow?"

"What's wrong, Dawnie?" Willow asked, confused. "What did I do?"

Dawn's eyes narrowed in a look that she hadn't really been able to pull off properly since she was thirteen or so. "You still look at me like a little kid!"

"No, Dawnie, I don't..."

"See! That's it! I'm just 'little Dawnie' to you!" Dawn felt herself up, and frowned even more at Willow.

"I don't see how..."

"Look at me, Wills. When you made our new bodies... you made me as you see me. As a little girl! I'm practically TWELVE again! My boobs are gone, my muscle tone's all gone, I'm not even shoulder-high to you, and Kyle's never going to want me like this!"

Willow's brows shot up. She hadn't even noticed, but Dawn was right. She'd always seen Dawn as Buffy's Little Sister, and when she'd given them bodies, she'd made Dawn that way. "I'm sorry, Dawnie.. er, Dawn."

"You get to be a goddess, and I get to be the bratty, annoying little sister again. SO unfair."

"Goddess?"

"Willow, you are the hottest girl I've ever seen. I told you you made yourself prettier, but there's more to it. Haven't you noticed the looks you've been getting?"

"Well, the women all think I'm some kind of unclean gay witch..."

"From the _men_ dorfus! That cart crashed because the guy driving it was too busy checking you out to watch where he was going." If Dawn weren't so angry with Willow, she'd probably laugh.

"I didn't..." Willow paused to think for a moment. "I need to fix this."

"_Yeah_ you do." Dawn simultaneously snarked and begged. "Can you make me look like I'm supposed to? I don't need to go through all of Middle School again."

Willow thought about what she'd done to make the 'illusions' the first time. "OK... I'll try again."

"Can you make a mirror first so I can check your work?"

Willow sighed. "I can try." She formed an illusion of a mirror, which somehow, drawing on the power of both planets simultaneously, became real or at least, real enough.

"OK, now me." Dawn said. "Fix me!" She added, "Hurry!" "Me me." Then she blinked. "Wow, I didn't know the brattiness came with the pre-puberty horomones. Sorry."

Willow grinned. "It's OK."

It was hard for Willow to see her differently. Since Joyce died, she'd practically been a mother to Dawn. That was her image of Dawn: a helpless little girl. Dawn was right though; that preconception wasn't fair. She tried hard to let go of that image of Dawn by forcing herself to remember Dawn as she'd been before they'd left Earth; a strong, confident, even sexy girl. Come to think of it, Dawn had been really hot. She hadn't really noticed when Dawn had grown up, but she'd grown up well. She closed her eyes and thought about all the ways Dawn had changed. She followed Dawn's progression from the state she currently suffered, into the beautiful girl she'd grown into. It was like looking at the older Dawn for the first time.

Dawn watched as Willow explored her memories for what Dawn was supposed to look like. It was very weird to see your features changing before your eyes, but she was very pleased as she watched herself grow from a scrawny, pathetic, snarky waif, into her former hotness.

Willow was a little disturbed by the thoughts she was having. Re-examining her picture of Dawn had brought her to realize that she was more than a little attracted to the younger girl. She'd gotten WAY hot. And she might be even hotter as she finished growing up.. with a few more minor changes..

Dawn watched as her body got to almost exactly as she remembered it, and smiled. She started to thank Willow, but when she glanced over at the girl her eyes were still closed. Dawn's eyes flicked back to the mirror. She lookeda little older than she was supposed to be... maybe nineteen. Her curves had filled out even more, and her features changed slightly the same way Willow's had, becoming the most perfect possible versions of themselves, like somebody had fixed all her tiniest imperfections with some ethereal airbrush. Suddenly her boobs swelled a little more, and Dawn worried a little. _It was nice to be nineteen, but now I look like some kind of supermodel pornstar._ she thought. "Wills?" she asked.

Willow's naughty thoughts were interrupted and she lost hold of her power. She glanced over at Dawn, who was absolutely the hottest girl who'd ever lived. "Wills, I think you went a little overboard." Dawn said. Willow was surprised at the tone of Dawn's voice, which had changed to be a soft, smoky voice like Tara's had been, but with a deep, rich undertone that stoked her imagination.

Willow couldn't really think anymore, but she could feel. And as embarassed as she felt now, she turned approximately the same shade as her hair.

"This is pretty wicked, isn't it?" Dawn said, licking her lips.

Willow melted, and nodded her agreement. Dawn struck a pose, arching her back and blowing Willow a kiss.

Willow fainted.

"Ack! Wills! I didn't mean to break you! Wills! This is fun, but can you just make me back into me?"

Willow didn't respond, so Dawn checked her heartbeat and breathing, and noted that they were fine; Willow had just fainted. She hadn't even fallen that hard. Dawn just had to wait for her to wake up.

"Great. I hate waiting," Dawn griped.

* * *

Elsewhere, asleep, Xander sighed a sigh of perfect contentment. He was having good dreams.

* * *

SG-1 sat at the conference table. General George Hammond looked out over his flagship team. Jack looked back at him suspiciously. "You're saying that the naquadah we traded from them is no good?"

"Essentially, yes." Carter added. "It's naquadah, but... it isn't. We've never seen this isotope before. It's unstable, like naquadriah... but it seems to work like regular naquadah. Except it's radioactive and its half-life is only hours. When we got it, it seemed fine, but now... it's useless. Almost completely inert."

"So what you're saying is they've put one over on us." Jack asked.

"That about covers it," George agreed. "The President wants you to go in and rectify the situation. You have full ambassadorial powers. We have few enough sources of naquadah, we can't afford for the ones we have to go bad."

SG-1 nodded in unison. "Indeed," Teal'c added.

"You depart in ten minutes. Gear up and assemble in the gate room. Dismissed."

SG-1 got up and ran off to collect their things.


	28. A Tangled Skein

Chapter 28 - A Tangled Skein Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

"I'm me!" Dawn shrieked once Willow had gotten her back to some semblance of herself. She bounced and hugged Willow. She thought that she might look a little too... _mature_ still, but she wasn't going to complain or spend all day trying to convince Willow not to indulge her fantasies since she'd complained so much about Willow seeing her as a little girl. For Dawn, it was close enough.

Willow had also managed to tone her own looks down to some semblance of normal, now that she had the mirror to work with. Even so, Dawn still felt that warmth that had been seeping out of the redhead's every pore.

"Weird." she pondered out loud.

"What, Dawnie, err, Dawn?"

"You're still.. radiating, even though you look normal now."

"Radiating what?"

"I don't know. Warmth, comfort, familiarity. I called it 'earthiness' to myself, but I wasn't sure if it could be earthiness if this wasn't Earth."

"Ah, I see..." Willow said, her furrowed brow revealing she didn't. "So, if we.."

Willow trailed off as behind them, the stargate activated, looking for all the world like a giant toilet being flushed in reverse. Dawn and Willow gawked.

"Whoa." Dawn managed.

* * *

SG-1 stepped down the ramp onto the grass surrounding the Gate. Teal'c was the first one to notice the two girls standing there with their mouths open. Jack noticed Teal'c's reaction and moved forward. He gave a start when he realized he recognized both of them. From Earth.

"All the Gates on all the Planets in all the universe, you walk out of mine." Willow smirked. Dawn giggled, knowing they'd get a ride home out of this, at least.

"Willow? Dawn? What the hell are you doing here?" He turned to Carter. "Did I miss something earlier? Was this mentioned in the part of the briefing I was only pretending not to sleep through?"

"Nope!" Willow interjected cheerfully. "We came her under our own power. Well, technically maybe we came under Dawn's power. Well, we _got_ her under Dawn's power, and now we exist under _my_ power, so maybe _our_ power is..."

"Willow!" Dawn stopped her. "You're babbling."

"Right. Sorry."

Daniel asked the question again. "So... how did you get here?"

"Did the Asgard bring you here?" Sam asked, thinking it the most likely scenario.

"Well, no." Dawn sighed and settled in. "I was working on my ability to... well, I was meditating. I've been getting better at sort of casting my mind out and following the lines of power in the universe - magic, gravity, etc. Anyway," she said, casting a warning glance at Willow who looked like she wanted to take over again, "This time Willow linked up our minds so she could follow along and help me study what I was seeing. I saw a really thick line of gravity which I now know was a wormhole, and we got sucked in and ended up here four days ago... without bodies."

"Without bodies?" Jack was confused.

"Normally, our mind is attached to our body by a thread of something... life energy, let's call it. It's thin, and stretchy. I've been as far away as the nearest stars to earth with no problems. But this... it's too far away, and our threads were too fragile - they snapped. So I couldn't find my way back to Earth, and my body was still there. Anyway, Willow made us new bodies accidentally. She was just trying to cover us with an illusion, but when she got here, she kinda merged with the magical core of the planet, and the overabundance of power caused her spell to go a little farther than her intentions..."

"I am truly shocked to say I think that's the craziest thing I've ever heard." Jack deadpanned.

Daniel picked up on something else. "'Merged with the magical core of the planet'?"

Dawn nodded. "Willow's our Mother Earth. Also, now, apparently, Mother whatever-this-planet-is. Every living planet has a core, a ball of magical energy that's tied to every living thing."

"Think of the magic/life relationship like the perpendicular relationship of electricity and magnetism in an electromagnetic wave," Willow added helpfully. Sam thought about it for a second and nodded.

"Anyway, Willow's own magical core sort of... dipped down into the planet and brought up a bunch more magic. But at the same time, the thread that ties her to the earth is _really_ thick to start with, so it was able to stretch this far without breaking. I can follow it back home, but Willow couldn't come that way because I'd need her to stay to anchor this end of the line while I, er, walk it."

"So Oma's 'Mother Earth' actually _did_ refer to Willow?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah." Dawn smiled. "At least we think so. So Jack..." The brunette turned her best puppy-dog eyes at Jack. Jack always was a sucker for kids, and Dawn had _damn_ effective puppy-dog eyes. "Can we hitch a ride home with you when you go back?"

He melted instantly. "Sure."

"Thanks, Jack! You're the best!" Dawn said, giving him a hug. He was a bit embarrassed by the open display of affection, and Teal'c raised an eyebrow with a hint of a smile watching Jack squirm.

"First, we have a mission," Sam reminded them all. "Let's go talk to the town's leaders and find out what happened with this... rock."

"Lead the way," Jack said to Teal'c, who immediately took point as they all headed back to the village.

* * *

"I'm sorry Buffy. We've been searching non-stop for three days, and we can't find any trace of them." Max and Liz said. They'd been going literally the whole seventy-two hours. Others had sat with them in shifts, but Max and Liz were sustaining each other in a way that just wasn't possible for any people who were not so intrinsically linked. "I'm sorry if I gave you false hope."

Buffy had never really believed that they could be alive, anyway. The sight of their cold, dead bodies lying on the floor was too firmly burned into the backs of her eyes. She felt Kyle's strong, comforting arms slide around her, and she turned into his chest and cried.

It was strange to her, how she felt closer to Kyle than before because of her sister's death. She'd been mad when Dawn won him because Buffy really liked him, and wanted him to like her. All that seemed stupid now. Stupid arguments over stupid boys.

Kyle had been as hurt as she by the loss of the two witches, Dawn especially. They had turned to one another for comfort, and could often be seen cuddled up, Kyle with his arms wrapped around the blonde Slayer. At first it had stung Buffy a little to think that he was only with her because Dawn wasn't with them anymore, but she got over that.

Life wasn't normal anymore. There were so many Potentials living in the house now, who needed Buffy. And so every night, she would put down her tears, grab a stake, or a sword, and go again to defend the dark from the creepy-crawlies and the shoddy-dressers.

Sacred Duty didn't leave much time for self-pity.

* * *

Ba'al looked down from his throne over Franco and Barnes. They were pitiful excuses for Goa'uld, but perhaps they could be useful. Buffy/The First looked on from beside the throne, smirking down at the pathetic former humans.

"Why have you come here?" Ba'al asked them imperiously. On the other side of his throne, the Turok'fa warrior glared down menacingly at the two.

Franco spoke up. "We came to join Anubis in hopes of taking over the Tau'ri world. But since you have defeated him, we now pledge ourselves to you instead."

"Your pledge will mean little if this is your idea of loyalty."

"We wish to be on the winning side. And from everything we can see... that's you."

Ba'al glanced at Buffy/The First and received a meaningful nod.

He interrogated them about the Tau'ri and the Trust for a while, until he ended the conversation with an announcement.

"Alright. If you join me, I will give you power such as you never imagined." The smile on his cold face grew suddenly wicked. He waved a hand, and the Jaffa guards took them into custody. Five minutes later they found themselves in Ba'al's lab strapped face down to a pair of tables.

"You will become my lieutenants, leaders of my Turok'fa." he monologued. "Once you have been turned, you will be loyal, and obedient. And _strong_."

One of the Turok-han came over to Franco and leaned over, biting his neck, through to his symbiote. The blood of the symbiote pooled out and into the blood of the host, and Franco began to die. Screaming.

Barnes' eyes lit up with fear, and he screamed as well as another Turok'han repeated the process with him.

Ba'all and Buffy/The First just smirked. "Oh be quiet, you baby. It's not even permanent." Buffy's voice said.

* * *

All the scoobies and potentials gathered around the place in Buffy's backyard where Willow and Dawn's graves had been dug. Xander had fashioned wooden boxes as coffins. It was the unhappiest he'd ever been while woodworking. Both of the coffins had been lovingly worked, and had large, ornate nameplates on them. They lay now at the bottom of the six-foot holes,

Most of the girls were crying, and Xander was, as well. Michael had the decency not to look bored, and the mood was appropriately sorrowful.

Once the service was over, Buffy stepped up to say a few words.

"Dawn was my sister. Willow, was my sister too. Many of us here feel the same. They will be missed. They will leave giant Willow-and-Dawn shaped holes in our hearts. But this is a war. A war against the darkness, and the stakes are the lives of entire human race. Our business is saving the world, people. They weren't the first to give their lives for that cause, and they won't be the last. We can't afford to mourn them too long, because we all have a job to do. A job that was important to them, and is still important to us. A job that's important to everybody in the world even if they don't know it." She paused for breath and thought for a moment.

"It's hard. People will die along the way, and it will hurt. But we _have_ to keep going. We _**have**_ to refuse to be put down. Because the moment we give up, everybody and everything we love is lost. And I intend to be the one at the end of this who's still standing, _not_ The First."

Buffy turned around to Xander and Kyle, who began shovelling the dirt into the holes over top of the coffins.

She took one look down at them, choked back a sob, and looked around at the assembled people she was trying to protect. "Amen."

* * *

SG-1 met with the town council the next day at noon. Willow was extremely interested in the naqahdah, and was hanging on Sam's every word, even though the SG-1 team was not really forthcoming with the information when she asked about it.

Dawn got bored with the conversation, and wandered off by herself, letting Willow know she'd meet her near the Gate when SG-1 was ready to leave. She got to thinking about their last trip into town and the way she'd dealt with the thugs that went after Willow. She'd actually shifted the threads of gravity from the buildings to the men. This gave her lots of interesting ideas. If she could manipulate the blue threads, could she do other things with them?

She looked around, seeing nobody else in the glade that surrounded the Gate. Tentatively, she shifted her perceptions and noted the blue thread tying her to the planet. She reached out with her thoughts and thinned the thread, dropping the rest to the ground. Instantly she felt lighter. She smiled. She thinned it out even more, and she felt like she could fly. She jumped, and flew ten feet into the air, coming down lightly as though she'd just been playing hopscotch.

"Cool." She said to herself. Well, if she could thin the thread that much, what would happen if she disconnected it completely?

She started to do it, then paused. She worried about being able to control herself if she didn't have any gravity holding her to the ground.

She looked around for something else, and spotted a tree branch on the ground at the end of the clearing. She smiled, and dragged it out over toward the Gate. She set it down, and then in one instant, she sheared all the blue threads attached to it. Dawn jumped as all of a sudden, it shot off like a rocket, arcing away through the sky in a burst of flame like a falling star being rewound.

Right. No cutting herself off from Gravity completely.

She sat and studied herself and her blue thread, and realized that there were other blue threads. Most were tiny - the one tying her to the planet were the only ones of any significance. Looking really closely though, she could see that there were infinitesimal blue threads spreading out in every direction. If she sharpened her mind's eye enough, she saw herself in a blue cloud that was thicker under her feet.

_Gravity connects everything to everything, over all distances. But the farther away and lighter the objects, the smaller that thread is._ There was a formula from physics class, but she couldn't remember it. Willow would know. _I guess now that I'm all Gravity Girl I need to actually pay attention to the rules._

"Ugh, Gravity Girl. So _not_ gonna be my superhero name. I need a _cool_ name, like Slayer."

Dawn noticed SG-1 and Willow heading back to the Gate and decided it would wait till later.

"Hey guys," she greeted them.

"Heya Dawnie," Willow replied. "Whatcha doin?"

"Just meditating."

"Let's go home," Jack suggested.

The girls nodded, and Sam went over to the DHD and punched in the code for Earth.

A few moments later, with a whoosh of shimmering liquid, the gate was open, and the travelers stepped through to Earth once more.


	29. Rise and Fell

* * *

Chapter 29 - Rise and Fell

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Dawn stepped out of the gate just ahead of SG-1 and looked around. "Wow... this is so cool!" she said, bouncing as she stepped down the ramp into the embarkment room. It _screamed_ 'top secret military base'. "I never got to see the Initiative."

Willow stepped out with Sam, followed by Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c. "Initiative?"

"Oh, army boys fighting demons. Top-secret military base in Sunnydale." Willow added helpfully.

"Right."

The speakers came alive as General Hammond activated the control room mic. "You've picked up a couple people since you left, Colonel."

Jack shrugged. "They followed me home. Can I keep them?"

George rolled his eyes. "Straight to medical exams, and what is sure to be an enlightening de-briefing in thirty minutes."

Jack gave a halfhearted salute in acknowledgment, and led the others out of the embarkation room towards the infirmary. "This way, people."

They followed him through the halls. Willow was subdued, but Dawn was practically vibrating.

Janet cleared them all medically, though she was fascinated by slight anomalies in the girls' readings. Everything, their blood, skin, hair, seemed to be human except with some sort of low-level energy output. For want of a better word, the girls were _glowing_. The radiation wasn't harmful, or of a significant enough level to have any effect at all on a human body, but she was unable to quantify it, and thus it intrigued her.

Hammond ruled that if they weren't a danger, and seemed to be themselves otherwise, Janet could keep investigating their blood samples to her heart's content, but they'd have to let the girls go.

Jack offered to escort them back to Sunnydale, but Willow shot the idea down. "I just need a phone call. My cell phone's still back with my original body. Call the Moon Base and they can transport me."

Jack shrugged. "OK. If you'd rather have little grey guys scatter your molecules across the atmosphere instead of spend a few hours with ol' Jack, I understand."

Teal'c nearly smiled as Dawn took pity on the Colonel, and clung to him with a big hug. "Oh, you know we love you, you big lug, but we've been away a week now, and Buffy's probably worried."

Willow had been handed a phone, and promptly dialed the Asgard base. Loki answered, his hologram projected right next to where the redhead was standing.

"Hello, Willow Rosenberg." came his oddly pitched voice. "You were scheduled to return to duty yesterday. We've had no word from your friends since they left nearly one of your weeks ago."

"Sorry I'm late for my shift, Loki... I was, er, detained off-planet."

"You went on a mission for the SGC? Why did you not inform me before you left?"

"No, Dawn took us off-planet accidentally."

"I was not aware that Buffy Summers' little sister possessed a starship." he said, intrigued.

"She didn't.. it's a long story."

"We got accidentally sucked into a wormhole" Dawn said.

"It's longer than that," Willow added.

"I shall look forward to hearing this long story... if you will share it while we work."

Willow nodded. "Can you transport me up?"

"Certianly." The Asgard scientist turned aside to play with the jewel device in his throne chair.

"Can I come too? Pleeeeease?" Dawn asked. "I haven't been allowed up to the Moon Base before."

Loki nodded, and a moment later, there was a flash and Willow and Dawn disappeared.

"Bye Jack!" Dawn managed just before they flashed out.

"Bye," Jack said a second after they'd left.

* * *

"Awaken, my new Lieutenants." Ba'al said.

Buffy/The First looked at him funnily. "You know I love you, Ba'al baby, but do you _have_ to be so cliche?"

Ba'al ignored the comment as Franco and Barnes began to rise from the tables, easily breaking through the restraints. "How do you feel?" Ba'al asked.

Franco, who now inhabited a Turok-han body, stood up, and replied. "Strong." He smiled. "Invincible."

Barnes rose next, and echoed his friend's sentiments. "Powerful," he said, examining the long dangerous-looking claws on the end of his hands. He scratched himself with one to test its sharpness. Blood crept down his arm. He watched in fascination as slowly, the wound sealed, and his skin absorbed the blood. "Like when we lived in the Unas."

Ba'al smiled. "But unlike the Unas, this host will never die, never age. Its flesh will be strong, and hale forever."

"How can this be?" Ba'al Franco asked.

"They are Turok'han.. what the Tau'ri call a vampire. It is dead, and yet it still lives. It is far stronger than a human, can regenerate from nearly any damage, and has natural weapons that mere human bodies do not."

"I can feel their memories... they are ancient already."

Ba'al nodded. "The whole history of the Tau'ri is now available to the Goa'uld. In order to further this cause, I have revived the bodies of these in a Sarcophagus, allowing you to take them while alive, which may solve many of their problems."

The blast doors retreated from the windows at the side of Ba'al's lab, letting in the sunlight. The goa'uld inside the Turok'han bodies worked furiously to flush the burning solar radiation from their systems, and Ba'al smiled when their bodies were unharmed.

"So far so good," Buffy/The First said.

Ba'al smiled, and picked up a small device, pointing it at the two new Goa'uld-han. The small device spat fire at them, but their no-longer dry and dead bodies did not readily burn. The Goa'uld, in conjunction with the demons' naturally accelerated healing, caused the slightly charred flesh to heal over quickly. Ba'al pressed another button, and they were soaked with water, which seemingly had no effect but to make them wet. The holy water had no effect on the now living flesh.

Ba'al didn't want to inform the Goa'uld inside the living bodies that THEY were now dead, but what they didn't know couldn't hurt him.

"Now you are gods among gods." Ba'al smiled.

Franco and Barnes took a moment, and a smile bloomed across their faces. It was Franco who stepped out of line first.

"So why should we now serve you, in your puny human host? This body craves blood, and I shall start with yours." Franco and Barnes both attacked Ba'al, who picked them up, one per hand, in a choke hold.

"Do you take me for a fool? I would not make you stronger than I am. You are gods among gods, but I am one with the very source of all darkness. However hard you are now to kill, it is still within my power. You are insects to me. Bow before your _god_!" He threw them down, and the now cowed lackeys knelt, marking their service.

"Excellent. Now I have a job for you. There are certain ones among the Tau'ri who must be killed..."

* * *

The alarm rang, waking Buffy and she rolled over to smack it into submission, but for some reason didn't get very far.

Behind her there was a lean, warm body wrapped around her. She smiled. "Kyle, get that for me would you"

He made a cute morning-grumpy rumbly noise in response as the alarm stopped without him even turning to look at it. His job done, he snuggled into Buffy's back, kissing her neck a little as they enjoyed each others' company in the warm softness of their bed.

They were in such a state of floating happiness that both of them were severely perturbed when a few minutes later, a knock on their door broke the silence.

"Buffy, time to get up," the voice of a random Potential warned.

"Go away..." Buffy grumpily half-yelled.

"Alright, but if you miss breakfast, it's not my fault..." came the retort through the door.

Buffy's eyes snapped open. Only one thing was more important than sleep to a tired slayer. Food. Slayers all ate like bears; their magically enhanced metabolisms were hard on the kitchen budget. Even the Potentials could really pack it away. She knew that if she didn't run downstairs right now, there would be nothing left once the girls got done with it.

With a resigned sigh, she got up, causing Kyle to grumble again. She wiped the sleep from her eyes, threw on some jammies since she was currently less-than-clothed. Then she rushed downstairs in search of pancakes and sausage, which she could just begin to smell.

Kyle, thus abandoned by his partner, got himself up as well. Still in his half-awake state, he opted for the shower while the girls were all busy with breakfast. There was simply no other way to manage to get a shower in the morning living with sixteen girls in a house with only two 'd have to ask Xander to install some more, on him.

It was a thoroughly ordinary day, despite how mourning still hung like a blanket in the air. It had come to the phase where everybody ignores the pink elephant in the room. They didn't mention Willow and Dawn, because they couldn't afford to waste the time anymore to cry; they were struggling for survival.

At least, after sundown they would be.

* * *

Xander and Isabel had been in the kitchen, Xander dutifully flipping flapjacks while Isabel put out plate after plate of them to be devoured by now almost thirty young girls. In the past, Willow had normally done breakfast duty; She was a maternal type. Buffy was too tired in the morning to think of _making_ breakfast, while she was always grateful to eat it. Isabel wasn't domestic at all... but she found comfort in the fact that she'd picked a man who knew how to excellently cook at least three meals: pancakes, grilled cheese, and spaghetti. With some gentle prodding, and appropriate rewards, he'd learn more and she wouldn't have to eat pancakes, grilled cheese, and spaghetti for the rest of her life.

And so it was that she found herself here, munching on pancakes drenched in maple syrup and Tabasco sauce, much to the disgust of most of the potentials. A young redheaded girl named Vi had tried it and found she liked it, which cause a whole new round of 'ew's from the tried-and-true maple-syrup crowd. Dawn would have drenched hers in whipped cream. And maybe anchovies. She had been the only one with weirder tastes than the aliens.

"Hey, Buff!" Xander's voice rang out cheerfully.

Isabel's eyes flicked up to the doorway as the daily arrival of zombie-Buffy occurred on-schedule, and Xander pushed a plate in front of her directly as she grumbled some sort of acknowledgment and sat down at the table. "Morning Buffy," Isabel said.

"Mmrrphrzgrphnssch." Buffy said, as a sort of half-grunt modified by her mouth being full with her first forkfuls of pancake.

Xander popped some coffee down next to Buffy's plate, and Buffy looked up at him gratefully. "Buffy love coffee."

Xander pouted as she hadn't said thanks. "Buffy love Xander?"

Buffy picked up and sipped her coffee, then gulped it. The hot liquid would have burned a normal human quite severely if they had drunk it that quickly.

"MM.... Buffy love Xander. More?" she looked up at him with puppy dog eyes under disheveled hair.

The man just chuckled. "Alright" He grabbed her mug and dutifully refilled it.

"Xander loves Isabel," Isabel reminded him.

"Xander wouldn't have it any other way," he said, moving to snuggle Isabel from behind and kiss her neck.

With the judicious application of caffeine and food, Buffy was rising out of her early morning stupor. "So what's up guys?"

"Ah you know Buff, same old same old. Get up, make breakfast. Most important meal of the day. Except dinner. Can't fight the forces of evil on an empty stomach."

Buffy nodded her agreement and finished her pancakes, and another stack after that, leaving everybody to their own thoughts, until Kyle came in and slid into a seat next to Buffy. Xander had saved him a stack of pancakes; guys looking out for guys. He liked Kyle - the guy shared his sense of humor, and he'd been there for Buffy. Of course, now he was schtupping Buffy, so maybe his motives weren't _entirely_ noble, but he had been hurt more than anybody but Buffy herself by Dawn's death, so maybe it was just a mutual comfort thing.

Andrew wandered through a minute later, carrying a large white board. "Hey guys, I've just worked out a way to do planning for patrols and stuff. Say hello to the Big Board. Here's the High School," a picture of the devil over top of a blocky building, "and here's the northern graveyards," a couple of squares with various little tombstones with 'R.I.P.' written on them, "and this is us," a square-and-triangle house like a kindergartner might have drawn was labeled 'Slayer Central'. "And it's magnetic, so I got these different colored magnets for the different patrol groups... and these black ones for the Fell Beasts of the Hellmouth."

Everybody, without a single exception, looked at him like he was insane. "I know it's not really to scale, but I'm working on that."

Nobody blinked.

"What?" he shrank under all their gazes. "I was just trying to help..." he turned the Board around, tucking it under his arm to carry it back out into the dining room.

There was a brief, unnoticed flash of light in Dawn's bedroom, as it was currently empty since the potentials were all downstairs. Dawn walked down the steps, and into the Kitchen.

"Hey," she said, yawning. She'd been up late from her tour at the Moon Base, and wanted some food before a long sleep.

Everybody, still in that awkward after-Andrew pause, looked at Dawn. It took a moment for her presence to register here. Buffy reacted first. She did what anybody in her position would have done. She snapped.

"YOU!" Buffy screamed. "Get out! You're not welcome here, and you're _not_ allowed to be _her_" she finished with a menacing growl in her voice.

"Huh?" Dawn stood there, confused. "I was more expecting to be grounded, than expelled."

"We already put you in the ground," Xander said quietly, seething with anger.

"You buried me?" Dawn gasped. She'd wanted to see if she could move back and forth between her two bodies. She wouldn't risk it if she could be trapped in a coffin underground without the strength to break out, though.

"That's what you do with dead people," Kyle said. "Now get out of here."

"But!" Dawn started to protest.

"_Go_" Buffy said.

"I'm not dead!" Dawn stomped her foot in a slightly bratty display of stubbornness. "I'm not the First! Touch me!" she said, reaching over to take Buffy's hand.

Buffy looked skeptical, perhaps daring to hope just a little that her little sister wasn't lost. But when Dawn's hand passed right through hers, her eyes narrowed.

"Get _out!_" Buffy said.

Dawn stared at her traitorous hand incredulously. What the hell had just happened? She moved over to the counter to attempt to pick up a coffee mug, but was unable to.

"You heard the lady," Xander affirmed.

Dawn was distraught. Her new body wasn't able to touch anything here! She did the only thing she could do. She turned and ran, right through the front door.

Buffy was in tears. "Why did it have to be _her_"

"Because it knew it would hurt us." Kyle cooed into her ear. "It'll be alright, somehow. We'll get through it, and we'll get that bastard."

"Amen," Xander said.

* * *

Dawn went to the nearest pay phone. She didn't consider that she wouldn't be able to use it, she just called Willow. The phone worked for her just like always. "Am I going crazy, Wills?"

"Huh?" came the reply from the other end of the phone.

"Can you just get me so we can talk?"

A moment later, a flash of light whisked the girl away.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: While I am trying to keep evenly around the whole story, my muse seems to be taking a liking to the development of Dawn and Willow. There will be a lot of them in the upcoming couple of chapters. I will do my best not to neglect other parts of the story, but I have realized that I now have a lot up in the air, and I may need to start alternating chapters to get it all in, even. Each of my chapters tends to be about 2500 words or so - that's what I aim for at least - and while in High School a 2500 word report seemed like a long one, the truth is that when writing a story like this it's hard to get everything you want in a chapter, even at that length.

Next Chapter: Ba'al's new lackeys come to Sunnydale!


	30. Skin Deep

* * *

Chapter 30 - Skin Deep

Disclaimer: I own neither, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

"And when she reached out for me, I passed right through her!" Dawn cried hysterically. "Willow, what's wrong with me?"

The redheaded witch put her arms around Dawn. "I think I'm supposed to say, 'there,there..' only I have no idea what that's supposed to mean," Willow quipped.

Dawn choked out a laugh through her tears. "Evil witch! I'm in pain here, you're not supposed to be able to make me laugh!"

"Somebody's got to, we don't have a Xander on the Moon Base." she said with a wry smile.

"I just wish I knew what happened. Why couldn't I touch her?"

"You couldn't touch her, or anything else, but you were able to use the pay phone?"

"Yeah... it was only the house.."

Both of the girls looked deep in thought, and then jumped up and shouted at each other in unison. "The Wards!"

Loki, who was listening to the conversation, interrupted at this point. "Wards?"

Willow nodded. "When I was living there, Tara and I put some pretty powerful magical protections on the house. Wards against demons, against ghosts, against illusions, against vampires... You name it, we did it."

"So my body, which is just a _really_ powerful illusion, was partially cancelled by the wards. They could see me, and even hear me, but not touch me. Naturally they thought I was The First."

"Since they buried Dawn's and my bodies when we were severed from them on that other planet."

"Daniel called it 'Auredonia'."

"Right."

Loki blinked. "So the evidence they had supported their hypothesis that you were not... yourself." Loki summed up.

"Exactly." Dawn beamed. "But we can talk to them from outside the house, or we can break the wards against illusion, or even just get our old bodies back and try to tie ourselves to them again."

"But they buried our bodies! I don't fancy trying to convince somebody to dig us up, _or_ waking up in my coffin till I suffocate to death." Willow said, shivering at the image. "Waking up in her coffin screwed Buffy up pretty bad, and she only lived through it because she's the Slayer and therefore super-strong."

Loki looked impatient, like he'd been trying to say something, but getting a word in edgewise between the two excitable girls was difficult as they barely paused to breathe.

"If I may," he said finally, as the girls continued to babble along.

Such thing was nearly an outburst from an Asgard.

"I will use the beam transporter to bring your bodies up here. If something prevents you from merging with them, I can clone you a new one and we can transfer your consciousness into it."

"Wow! No digging. Trust the Asgard."

It was at that moment that Heimdall walked back in, and before anybody could say ot do anything, Heimdall had raised her jewel device and beamed in Liz, Max, Michael and Maria. The four of them took one look at Dawn and Willow and Maria fainted. Michael put up a hand to defend himself, and Max and Liz smiled. "We looked for you for ages," Liz finally said.

"Wait, you knew we weren't dead?" Willow asked.

"We started off thinking that way, but your bodies couldn't survive without your energies... so after it got beyond hope, we didn't dare to believe that you were still out there somewhere," Max said.

"Actually, I knew what had happened, and how it would all turn out." Liz admitted. "I got two different flashes."

"What?" Max asked. "You knew?" he said, sounding severly pissed off. "How could you let everybody go through that?"

"I had to keep it a secret! I got two flashes. In the first one, I found out what happened. In the second flash, I saw what happened when I told Buffy... I couldn't let that happen."

"What happened?" Willow asked, curious.

"In the future where I told Buffy... she went on a crusade to get you back. She and Xander left us. And then, the First came, and killed us all. Without Buffy and Xander, we will die. I saw it. This puts her through a lot of pain, but she would have had pain anyway - there was nothing she could do to help you! But by not telling her, I saved all our lives."

Dawn was very quiet. Finally, she ran to Liz and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you!" Dawn whispered intensely. "I don't know what I'd do if Kyle died..."

Liz and Max both looked exceedingly uncomfortable.

Willow noticed first, but when Dawn finally let go of the hug because of the sudden awkwardness, she needed to know what was up. "What's wrong, guys?"

Max and Liz, stayed uncomfortably silent.

"Guys.... Spill." Dawn said, getting agitated now. Everybody else present could feel... literally feel... the oppressive weight of her suddenly worried emotions; as if gravity had just decided it wanted to pull harder on everything.

Liz blurted it out. "Kyle, he thought you were dead... he turned to Buffy for comfort."

"He _what_?" Dawn screamed.

"The two of them have been together since your... death." Max said stoically.

"Been together... like, you mean, _been_ together 'been together'?" she asked, a bit panicked.

Neither of them said a word.

Dawn started to cry. Alright, cry was the wrong word for it. She wept. Sobbed, even. Willow was more than a little struck by the normally sarcastically unshakeable, strong, confident, obscenely powerful Dawn showing that kind of vulnerability. So she did the only thing she could think of to do.

She took Dawn in her arms, and held the sobbing girl till her tears dried.

Somewhere during the spectacle, Max and Liz left for their room.

* * *

Franco and Barnes stalked through the night. There was no other word for it. Their movements were all but silent. These two particular goa'uld were perfectly suited for this, having lived on Earth for so long. Normally, goa'uld would be forced to rely on their Jaffa for things like this, but not these two. They were perfectly willing to go the distance themselves, under their own, now even more considerable, power.

They had been told that this assignment was the most important in the plans of their new master. They had been given a list of girls to hunt down, and had already killed three. There were three more that they knew of off alone, and this gave them an opportunity to test the new limits of their physical powers. The girl they were hunting now was difficult prey at night, even for their mystically enhanced eyes.

The girl's skin was the darkest they'd ever seen. Even on the shallow grasses of the steppe, she had an uncanny ability to disappear into the ground, or any convenient shadow. There was no moon to help silhouette her, no city lights to cast reflections on the clouds in the sky. It was causing them no small amount of frustration. Goa'uld were easily frustrated at the best of times; their tendency for megalomania tended to make them believe that everything should just happen as they wanted it to; however that wasn't the case at the moment, and it chafed them.

One of them caught a flicker of movement to their left. They could smell her occasionally, but she was used to having to stay downwind from predators so that her scent wouldn't carry.

Humans, pitiful as they were however, got tired without food and sleep. Barnes and Franco could keep going for a long time without either, although the tantalizing hints of the girl's virgin blood that occasionally passed them were enough to make them eager for their meal.

It was only a matter of time.

* * *

Xander had become considerably harder since the deaths of Willow and Dawn. It worried Isabel. He had always been free with the jokes, the heart of the group, lifting their spirits. It was a job Alex had done for the Roswell group, and Isabel had found it just as attractive in Xander. However, Dawn and Willow's deaths had changed things. They had been the catalyst that had rubbed off a good deal of his soft exterior to show the rocky core. He still tried to keep things light for them all, but his eyes, when he thought nobody was watching, would slip into what old soldiers called the Thousand-yard Stare.

"Xander?" she asked, turning over in their bed to face him. "Do you want to talk about what happened today?"

"No." he replied softly.

"You haven't mentioned either of their names since we buried them."

"They never existed," he explained patiently.

Isabel's eyes went wide. "What?"

"They never existed. This is a war. We can't afford to think about what we've lost. Only about what we've yet to lose that we can still save. So anyone or anything that isn't here, now, to worry about, to protect.... they never existed."

Isabel curled up to his chest. "Xander, this may be a war, but you're not going to be a very good soldier if you don't work this out. You need to grieve."

"I know that. I have."

"I don't think you have." she said. "Have you even cried once since...?" She thought better of finishing the sentence. _Since they died._

"No. The others... they need me to be strong. Even Buffy. She tries to be strong for the others, but she's cried, only because I've been there to let her. I can't afford to go to pieces.

"Well, Xander Harris," Isabel said, moving up and taking his face in her hands and locking his gaze on hers, "_I_ am here to let _you_. I'm your partner. It's my job to shoulder some of your burden. Nobody can handle everything alone. We share it around so that none of us break. Dawnie was here. Willow was here. They were wonderful friends, and we loved them deeply, and we regret their loss, but even more, we _feel_ their loss. As pain, as a hole in our heart that our spirits slowly seep out of. But the rest of us... we're here. We're what we have left. We're here to plug the holes in each others' hearts. I'm your _partner_. You _will not_ push me away, and you will _not_ stay strong for me. I've done my grieving, shed my tears. No you better do the same, if you know what's good for you, mister. It's my turn to be strong for you."

Xander stared into her eyes and a moment later a tear rolled down his cheek. "She was my best friend since forever," he whispered, "And now I'll never see her goofy grin again." Another tear fell, joining the first. "And Dawnie. Dawnie was a ray of sunshine. She was family." The first tears opened the floodgates and before he knew it he was sobbing. She just held him there, knowing he needed to express his grief.

_And I hope it makes him feel better,_ she thought to herself. _I hate to see him holding on to all this pain._

* * *

Max and Liz beamed into the living room, and were greeted with raised weapons from several potentials. They smiled, and shook one's hand, and the potentials stood down and went back to whatever they had been doing a moment ago.

Liz went straight away and found Buffy. "We found Dawn and Willow! We just saw them on the Moon Base!" she said.

Buffy slapped her with a resounding 'smack' sound.

"Ow!"

"Sorry," Buffy said. "The First popped in here earlier as Dawn, and I wanted to make sure it wasn't a trick."

"The First?"

Buffy relayed the story.

"It wasn't the first, Buffy. It was Dawn. I should know, both of us hugged her and Willow on the moon base two minutes ago!"

"My hand passed right through her!"

"It was her, Buffy," Max insisted. "She was just wearing an illusion body since she didn't have her real one back yet."

Buffy's eyes went wide. "Oh my god... they're going to wake up in their graves! We have to get them out!" she shrieked, panicked.

"Buffy..." Liz started.

Max shouted, "Buffy!"

Buffy turned and gave him her attention. "What?

"Loki and Heimdall have already gotten their bodies out. They're on the moon base now."

"Get me up there. Get everybody up there."

Liz nodded and reached into her pocket for an Asgard jewel device. She activated it and in a moment, they were gone.

* * *

Dawn and Willow held hands, lying on the tables next to their bodies. They'd been unable to reconnect to their old non-illusion bodies, so Heimdall was in the process of cloning them new ones.

"My scans are complete," Heimdall said. "Your mental energy patterns are cohesive enough to overlay onto a clone body. If you had been ordinary humans, it would not be possible. But what Willow has called 'the Magic gene' has allowed you an outlet to develop the necessary mental fortitude."

Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. It'll be nice to be alive again." She squeezes Willow's hand, and Willow squeezes back and throws her a happy glance.

Willow smiled, and examined their bodies. "I think we couldn't merge with them because they've already been prepped for burial. There's embalming fluid instead of blood, and all that kind of thing.

Dawn looked down at herself, and then at her body and suddenly was dismayed. "I'm going to lose four years and three cup sizes!" she complained. "I like being nineteen," she added for Loki's benefit.

"I do not understand," Loki said.

"Well, my body is immature... I'm still in the end of my weird gangly stage. The illusory me has completed maturing and is fabulous." she said with a bounce and a twirl which made Willow's throat a little dry.

"We could attempt to make the necessary modifications, but they would not be exact, as your current... form... has no DNA from which we can harvest a baseline genetic pattern."

Willow chimed in here. "Dawnie, I'm not sure that it's such a good idea..."

"Why, Wills? I thought you liked me like this. You made me this way, after all," Dawn said, teasing the girl by smoothing down the front of her shirt and taking a deep breath.

"But.. but... you're Dawnie! You're supposed to be young, and innocent, and..."

Dawn was enjoying the effect she was having on Willow, as any pretty girl will who has only recently come to experience the idea of her own sexual power. She adopted a playful expression, and lowered her eyelids a little. "Innocent?"

Willow squeaked.

Loki watched all of this with interest. The Asgard had very little concept of gender roles, being asexual, but nothing else so basically defined a human, and he soaked it all up.

He saw that it was important to her, and thought it would make for an interesting experiment. Based on Dawn's baseline genetic profile, made a couple of small, slight modifications. Her clone body would more closely resemble her illusory one and she would be aged to approximately nineteen years of age instead of fifteen.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I said I'd get Barnes and Franco to Sunnydale this chapter, but they're hunting potentials still, and the one they've got has managed to elude them so far.


	31. Who Needs Red Matter

* * *

Chapter 31 - Who Needs Red Matter?

Disclaimer: I own neither, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Thoth, the greatest (really only) Goa'uld research scientist had been working tirelessly for years on a weapon that would give him advantage over the other Goa'uld. Right now, he was stuck suffering under the aegis of Ba'al, who had swept most of the opposition against himself away. He was nearly ready to test his prototype for Ba'al. Hopefully, he could show the weapon to Ba'al, Ba'al would be pleased, and grant Thoth more resources. If Ba'al believed him to be loyal, and an asset, he would be gifted with more territory from which to harvest his research subjects, as well as slaves to labour and build him ships, and Jaffa to protect him and his holdings.

The weapon itself was a deceptively simple idea. It was a planet-killing bomb. The idea had actually been given to him by the Tau'ri, who once tested a naquadah-enhanced fusion bomb on a planet with naquadah in the soil. However, the Tau'ri bomb had been a primitive device; a 'dirty' bomb which left behind massive amounts of radiation on the planet and cooked off the atmosphere in the process of cracking the planet into pieces.

Thoth's device was much more elegant and based on an entirely different principle. Instead of an explosive device, it was a modified compression device. It used naquadah enhanced implosion devices to create a superheavy, superdense ball of quark matter, an element composed entirely of free up and down quarks. The process of generating the quark matter was simple; intense pressure from the explosion of the naquadah devices focused into a small area was too much for the electromagnetic force to hold the protons and electrons apart. The electrons would be forced inside the protons, canceling the electric charge and producing statically neutral Neutrons. The pressure would be significant enough to force a small amount of this Neutronium to split into its constituent quarks, which would release a second stage explosion even greater than the first, with the entire rest of the Neutronium ball to fuel it. This second explosion would be enough to vaporise the rest of the planet, and the superdense Quark Matter at the center of the explosion would quickly gather all the resulting gas back into a single body. Eventually it would cool down, and depending on the size of the planet would form differing elements which could then be harvested later for raw materials.

Thoth theorized that the device could even eat a star, causing stars to collapse into dwarfs, neutron stars, quark stars, or black holes, for those stars that were simply so massive that even Neutronium and Quark Matter couldn't hold up under that much pressure.

It would be the ultimate weapon of terror - to believe that a planet's sun could simply be extinguished at any time thus condemning anybody near it to a slow and painful death... And he also believed that the gravitational force acting within the solar system of any planet so near a black hole would prevent their stargate from being able to dial out to any known gate addresses because of the spatial distortion effects.

It would be his crowning achievement.

And once he had it, he could rid himself of Ba'al once and for all. But first, he would allow Ba'al to rid him of the troublesome Tok'ra and Tau'ri.

* * *

Dawn and Willow woke up at roughly the same time. Haimdall and Loki were puttering around the tables, making sure everything was medically correct with them. "How do you feel?" Haimdall asked Dawn, running some kind of Asgard jewel device over her from neck to navel.

"I feel... good," Dawn replied. "Really, _really_ good, actually," she said, stretching her new body and flexing her fingers and toes. "What did you do to me?"

"I modified your genetic code slightly to match up with the changes that had been made to your illusionary body." Loki answered.

Willow, who hadn't yet moved since her eyes were opened, closed her eyes again.

Dawn sat up, the clinical cover falling down off her naked body, and inspected herself. "I feel really light. And I look damn good, too," she said.

Willow, whose eyes were already closed, pushed closed even tighter, squinting her closed eyes against the temptation of staring at a nude Dawnie.

It would have been wrong to peek.

Really.

But she should look Dawnie over, magically speaking, to make sure her energies had merged properly with her new body, right?

Tentatively she opened one eye and turned it toward Dawn.

The other eye opened of its own accord, and she turned and gawked.

Dawn, noticing Willow's sudden attentiveness, flashed her a smirk and covered her breasts in a pose of mock-modesty. "Willow, I know I'm hot, but you're kinda naked too, you realise..."

Willow suddenly turned as red as her hair, and squeaked out, "Eek! Clothes!"

Heimdall nodded and pressed a button on her jewel device, clothing appearing beside each of them.

"We were not expecting you to awaken quite so soon," Loki said. "Usually the mental transference takes longer to settle its pattern into the clone's brain."

"Maybe because our brains are different because of the magic."

"That is possible. We have been unable as yet to properly categorize the properties of the quantum effects you call magic."

"Magic's simple," Willow said. "Magic is the genetic ability of a brain to allow the chaos within which all possibilities exist below the Planck length to be magnified, essentially stretching one Planck length to encompass a desired area producing the appropriate effect of..." she trailed off as Dawn's eyes went wider. Loki answered her with a blink, which Dawn knew meant he was curious. "How do I know that?" Willow asked.

"You remember some of the things you learned while Ascended," Oma said suddenly, causing them to turn toward where the Ancient guide had suddenly appeared on the other side of Willow's hospital table. "You achieved it momentarily while you were dying, and time is not the same there. You learned much, because your mind is naturally keen and curious. Unfortunately, we could not allow you to retain all your knowledge. Congratulations, though, Willow. You are Becoming the avatar I knew you would be and some of your newfound understanding had become an essential part of your energies. We could not take the knowledge of these things from you. Fare well, your knowledge and power will be needed to save your kind from that which is coming."

"What's coming?" Dawn asked.

"You know I can't answer that. I can remind you of what you already know... From beneath you, it devours."

Oma was suddenly gone, and Willow had a lot to think about.

Willow and Dawn gratefully donned their clothes, which were replications of the clothing they'd been wearing when they died, and Dawn smiled for the first time in a while. "We can go home!" she said excitedly to Willow. "They'll believe it's us now! One question," she added. "Why do I feel so light?"

"What do you mean, Dawnie?"

"Well, it's like my body's made out of feathers or something. There's no resistance. Hang on..." Dawn closed her eyes and performed the mental exercise that allowed her to see the threads of gravity. She saw that there were the same ones connecting her with the gravitational generators in the floor as there were everybody else. They seemed about as thick as they would have been on Earth. "That's weird... I thought maybe because of being on the moon,"

"The base's gravity is exactly that of Earth at Sea level on your Equator." Loki intoned.

"Then I thought maybe I had cut some of the gravity around me, but I'm tied down just the same as you."

"Perhaps the changes I made in your genetic structure allowed for the increased muscular density present in your sister to become a dominant trait." Loki conjectured.

"You mean I'm a slayer now?" the brunette asked.

"No," Willow answered. "merely a Potential. You're slightly faster and stronger than you were, and have better reflexes, but you're nowhere near as strong as Buffy. A Slayer requires the slayer spirit residing over the host spirit to produce the energy necessary to enhance the body to that degree."

"Still," Dawn said, "Cool. How come I wasn't like this before?"

"I expect that the Monks, not wanting you to seem outstanding since they were trying to hide you, suppressed that trait when they made you from Buffy."

"But my new body was a clone of my old body." Dawn seemed confused.

"I repaired all of the inconsistencies in your genetic markers when I made my modifications." Loki said.

"I see, so now, it works, when before, I had the dormant version."

"Exactly," Loki said.

"So cool," Dawn said excitedly. "So we gonna go home, or what?"

"I'll beam you down," Heimdall said. "Just.. 'say when'."

Dawn and Willow looked at each other, and smiled.

"When," they said in unison.

Heimdall made to press her Jewel device, but a sudden flash startled them all, revealing Liz, Max, Buffy, Xander, Isabel, Michael, Maria, and Kyle.

Dawn and Willow, suddenly confronted with so many pairs of eyes, shrunk a little under the gazes.

"Um, hi guys," Dawn said.

Buffy rushed forward and took Dawn into her arms, joined by Xander who hugged her from the other side, and pulled Willow into the hug.

"I can't believe it's really you!" she said. "I _grieved_ for you!"

Dawn shrugged. "Now you know how we felt about you dying."

"Touche'" Kyle declared irreverently.

Everybody seemed at a loss for words after this, and they decided on another round of hugs, everybody touching them to make sure they were real in their own minds.

"Wow, Dawn..." Xander said. "You've... grown." he leered at her, just a little, thanks to the timely elbow from Isabel. Dawn, however, lapped it up, striking a pose that caused Willow to blush again. Dawn's old clothes were noticeably small on her in certain areas. Xander and Kyle both noticed Willow's reaction, and shrugged.

Buffy, however, yelled at her baby sister. "Dawn! You're not supposed to time travel!"

"I didn't," Dawn said. "When we lost our bodies, this was the one Willow made me, and I decided I liked it, so when we got real bodies back, Loki made me this way as a favor."

Buffy turned a glare on the tiny Asgard scientist. Buffy was short, and sensitive about it, but happy to look _down_ at somebody when she was trying to menace them. "You turned my baby sister into a sexpot!"

"I did not alter her base parameters," Loki said. "I simply allowed her clone body to mature more fully before implanting her mind into it."

"She's only sixteen!" Buffy said.

"Or three, or thousands of years, depending on how you look at it," Xander interjected.

"Not helping," Buffy shot back, perturbed.

"He just did it to protect me." Dawn shot out quickly, an idea forming.

"What?" Buffy turned to focus her attention on her sister who immediately started to squirm.

"Well, I mean... full-grown is full-strength, and my Potential genes are working now, so I'm stronger and faster than I was, a little. It means I'm not quite as helpless. And while I know you want to keep me out of the fight, it could help me keep myself from getting kidnapped on Tuesdays." she said.

Buffy pondered for a moment, then shrugged and nodded. "OK," she said. "But _no more_ genetic modification!" she admonished, eyes flickering back and forth from Dawn to Loki. Mom wouldn't let me get a tattoo, she certainly wouldn't have wanted to let you change your genetic code."

Dawn nodded, abashed.

"Right, can we all get on to the celebratory party at Casa de Summers?" Xander asked, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Yeah!" they all agreed. Heimdall waved her hand over here Jewel device and all the scoobies were transported back to Buffy's house in an instant of bright white light.

* * *

Ba'al and Thoth watched in silence as the Death Glider moved down to the planet below. Thoth's device had been fitted into the glider, which was being piloted by remote. It landed, and moments later, the device detonated.

Had they had Tau'ri plumbing, they would have thought it looked rather like flushing the planet down a toilet. At first, a pulse of energy vaporised a good quarter of the planet, while the newly created ball of superdense neutronium quickly gathered all the vapor, growing and growing itself. The crushing force caused the central Neutronium to convert as planned, releasing another massive wave of energy. The rest of the planet cracked into pieces, and then vaporised, as the wave passed through.

"Energy wave approaching." the Jaffa weapons officer announced. Thoth knew that what they were watching had happened nearly four minutes ago, but even at this distance, the energy wave washing over the ship would be severe.

A few seconds later the whole ship rocked, sustaining significant but not crippling damage even through its shields.

"The energy release was slightly larger than even my calculations led me to believe it would be," Thoth said.

It had been a large planet; but was nowhere near massive enough to generate a black hole. It took only minutes, and all that remained of the planet was a tiny white dwarf of degenerate electron matter with a tiny core of quark matter, nowhere near even a tenth of the size of the original planet, but just as massive.

Ba'al smiled. "You have pleased me."

Buffy/the First squealed with glee.

Thoth struggled to contain his own smile.

"Now... how will we send one of these devices to the Tau'ri world..." Ba'al began to plan.


	32. In Which Things Go From Bad to Verse

* * *

Chapter 32 - In which things go from Bad to Verse

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

The following weeks were quiet on the slayer front. They heard more reports of Potentials being killed, but the ones that made it to Sunnydale, the First left alone. It worried Michael a lot, not knowing what the enemy was up to. Xander too got nervous, and as their tacticians, the two of them knew that something bad was coming their way.

Dawn's powers were something of a mystery, even to Willow and the Roswell gang, who were at a loss to explain how somebody could treat gravity like an _option_ rather than the immutable law of nature most people experienced. Willow had a bit of a theory, but while she was brilliant, she was not a physicist.

The girls, including Dawn, were going through daily training: fighting, along with running and exercises to maximize their muscle strength and flexibility. They were improving by leaps and bounds with Kennedy as a drill instructor of sorts. She occasionally got a little to into it, "Did you see that? I just called that girl 'maggot'!" but overall, she did an excellent job.

Everybody got caught up in the training fever, and even Andrew spent large amounts of time constructing charms and fetishes for summoning and controlling various useful kinds of demons - his only useful skill in a fight.

Xander, during this time, had found a stride that nobody would have guessed he possessed. While Buffy was still regarded as nominally in-charge, it was Xander who laid out schedules for patrol and planned training raids. As he began to get his new powers under control, he even became a great field officer, and many local vampires had learned to fear the sight of Xander and Michael coming their way. Isabel was very proud of how far he'd come from the dorky guy she started going out with what seemed like forever ago. Underneath, he was still the same lovable goof, but he'd matured into a man in the short time they had been together. He'd always been fiercely determined to help his friends, but the difference was that now, when necessary, he could actually be _fierce_.

And the Potentials were becoming a bit of a problem about it. Isabel was working overtime to manage to reinforce her claim on him and send the other girls the 'hands off' message. Liz would have had to worry about the same with Max, but they were on the moon base a lot because of Liz's work with the Asgard. Michael was a bit too intense and scary for them to really find him attractive, and Kyle was Buffy's constant companion meaning they never had an opportunity to hit on him, though they did often stare, checking out the muscles he'd worked since middle school for.

Liz had been developing as well. Studying Asgard genetics, she had learned so much so fast that sometimes she felt her head would explode. Still, she kept soaking it up like a sponge. She found her memory was nearly eidetic, perhaps part of her Alien package. She was enjoying the unique challenges the Asgard presented her. Her thought processes were very different from theirs and she often made intuitive leaps they could not, and noticed options which did not present themselves to the Asgard. As a result, their research was progressing more quickly than they had anticipated, which they were very happy about.

So of course, it was time for fate to toss out another curve ball.

* * *

"It what?"

"I believe your term is 'blew up.'" Anise said in answer to Jack's question.

"Well, so what? We've sent Naquadah enhanced nukes to planets and caused a chain reaction with the Naquadah there to destroy the planet..."

"Of course. Destroying a planet isn't a diffculty - but this device could theoretically destroy a sun."

"We've made a sun collapse before by sending an active stargate opened to a black hole into its core, but... how would you destroy a sun normally? The Goa'uld can't build stargates, and as far as we know, they don't have the address to the black hole." Sam replied.

"The device appears to be a micro-particular implosion device. It reduces any kind of matter to a super dense ball of free quarks."

"The amount of energy necessary to do that is... incalculable." Sam said, shocked.

"Yes and no," Anise replied. "The device works in stages. The gravitational pull of any amount of quark matter is huge within a confined area. Generating a small amount suddenly via implosion, would put tremendous strain everything immediately around it. In addition, a massive amount of energy is released from the sudden dispersion of the Strong Nuclear forces holding the molecules of the fuel source together. Some of the free quarks will form superfluous gravitons, increasing the gravitational pull of the quark matter to many times that which would normally be expected of its mass. The rest is released as free energy, in the form of heat. This energy travels outward in a wave, plasmatising any nearby matter. The gravity of the tiny amount of quark matter will force the newly generated plasma to pull in toward the center, where it will be crushed by the gravitational pull of the quark matter. With enough matter, like a planet, or a sun, the gravitational forces at the center will be enough to cause the neutrons inside to break down into more quark matter, causing a chain reaction until all that's left is a super dense ball of quarks."

"In English?" Jack asked.

"Everything the device blows up becomes more fuel for a larger, next-stage explosion. The device will essentially 'eat' everything within a few light-months of it until the gravitational range of it is too weak to pull in any more heavy minerals to compact into fuel."

"So they can blow up a whole solar system?"

"And reduce it to nothing but quarks." Anise nodded.

"And this is different from them blowing up the earth with a big bomb how?" Jack countered.

"The gravitational effects of the device cause space local space to bend so severely that Stargate travel may be impossible."

"So there's nothing we can do to survive it if even one of these devices goes off in our solar system?"

"Well, the device would probably need to be set off inside your sun to consume the entire solar system. But essentially, yes."

"So the bigger they are, the harder they fall," Daniel said. "Give us some good news?"

Anise nodded. "The device has been developed by Thoth, who is now Ba'al's right hand. In addition to the formidably advanced resources gained from Anubis, Ba'al has begun to use a new type of super-soldier that we have been unable to capture for study. They are stronger and faster than Anubis' Kull warriors, and though not as impervious to damage, they regenerate very quickly from small wounds, and are impervious to the Anti-Kull weapons."

"And all your other fancy weapons are useless?" Jack objected.

"And this is good news how?" Daniel asked.

"No... the concussion blasts from Staff weapons is ineffective in damaging the enemy, but can knock them about. On the contrary, Zat'nik'atels have been exceedingly effective used in three-shot bursts. The problem is that two shots appear to do nothing at all, and the numbers they travel in exceed ours. Usually, by the time a Zat'nik'atel can get three shots off, they have usually been able to close to melee and disable the weapon's wielder. Since they outnumber us so badly, our losses are much greater than theirs."

Daniel sighed. "It's a war of attrition."

"Worse," Jack said. "It's simple numbers. They have more. A great man once said, 'The loss of manpower can often be offset by the addition of firepower.' You guys invented T.E.R.'s just to fight the Reetou. Can't you, I don't know, make a stronger Zat? Like a rifle or something that doesn't bother with stunning and just goes straight for the disintegration?"

Anise blinked. "We could, but such devices would need very large power packs, and we lack the resources and manufacturing capability to produce sufficient numbers of such a device."

"Well, then give us the plans, and we'll make 'em for you." Jack yelled.

Anise blinked again. "We do not give advanced technology to -"

"So you'd rather die than share?" Jack asked.

"I... I will contact the Tok'ra Council with your proposal." Anise looked upset. Very upset.

Jack nodded strongly, feeling as though he'd won a real victory. George seemed happy as Tok'ra might actually be useful allies for once. And all it took was their near total annihilation.

* * *

Kyle ran his fingertips down Buffy's arm. "You know, I think Dawn's pretty much forgiven us."

Buffy nodded and pulled his arm tigher around herself as she snuggled into him. "That's good, if it is a bit... suspect."

"What do you mean?" He asked, nuzzling her neck.

"Well, she's past it because she's moved on."

"Very mature of her."

"No..." Buffy explained. "Moved on... to the next thing."

"Oh!" Kyle said. "Who's the lucky guy? We don't really know any single men. Single girls, sure, but..."

"Have you seen the way Willow's been looking at Dawn?"

"Buffy, Dawn's insanely hot. Especially given how she's... changed. We've all been looking at her."

At Buffy's death-glare, Kyle continued, stammering out, "Though I've... only... been doing so in order to... look... out... for her. From evil, ill-meaning sexual predators, I mean."

Buffy shrugged. "Excellent almost-save."

"I'm sleeping alone tonight, aren't I?" Kyle asked, with a mock-pout.

"We never had a dog, or you'd be sleeping in the dog-house. At least the couch is comfortable."

"Argh! Me and my big mouth!" Kyle bemoaned.

"Yeah," Buffy quipped, "That's not my favorite 'big' part of you..."

Kyle raised an eyebrow. "Are you flirting right after you kick me to the doghouse?"

"Well, it's not a punishment if you don't keenly feel the loss of what's been taken away..."

"Foul temptress..." Kyle accused.

"Excuse me, I am off to my room to try on my cheerleader skirt from high school. I haven't gained a pound, but sadly, I think it may have shrunk in the wash..." Buffy bounded up the stairs.

Kyle sunk to his knees and raised his hands to the heavens in supplication as soon as he recovered from the mental image. "ARGH!"

* * *

It was a Tuesday, when the Prometheus was towed into Earth Orbit by an Asgard O'Neill class battlecruiser. The cruiser was beautifully designed, and exceedingly impressive, when Willow heard the Asgard chime/alarm aboard the lunar base alerting the inhabitants of an exit from hyperspace, followed by the almost immediate identification of the ship as the O'Neill, Thor's own ship, and a greeting message from Thor to Heimdall.

The Prometheus had been damaged due to a recent attack by the Goa'uld on an offworld mining outpost. They resented the people of Earth using their technology to fight them, and one of them had taken it upon himself to attack any known source of Naquadah being used by the Tau'ri. It didn't seem possible that Ba'al was doing it, but it might be that one of his underlings had found some initiative.

Thor had brought not only the ship, but also a bit of intelligence. The Asgard had detected a spacetime anomaly centered around Ba'al's main base. It was unknown to them; the only thing in their experience even close to this kind of signature was a quantum mirror, but this was several orders of magnitude more powerful.

Once again, it was up to Jack and the crew to deal with it. So it was that Tuesday's twilight (so far as Colorado reckons) found SG-1 gathered in the briefing room with Willow Rosenberg, Thor, and General Hammond.

Willow wondered about that. She had some ideas, but nothing really to form them out of since she had no idea what she was looking at in the Asgard scans any more than they did. "It's like the energy collapses on itself. Like a black hole."

Thor blinked at her, and tilted his head slightly to regard her. "A black hole would require huge amounts of mass and crush the planet nearly instantaneously. It is a mystery, what is happening to the energy signature at the point where it seems to disappear."

"What if it didn't disappear, but maybe was shunted into subspace?" Sam asked.

"Asgard sensors are capable of detecting energy fluctuations in subspace as well. It is one of the principles of our beaming technology."

"So then where does it go?" Hammond asked.

"Another dimension?" Willow half-mumbled to herself. Thor appeared to have heard it.

"Intriguing."

"I'm sorry, what?" Jack asked.

"Miss Rosenberg seems to hypothesize that the energy does not disappear but moves into another dimension; a 'parallel world', which we call superspace layers. They of course exist; the quantum mirror discovered by you is proof of that. However, we have never discovered a way to reliably travel between one layer and another without a quantum mirror."

"Why do you think this is the case, Willow?" Sam asked, intrigued herself.

"Because we've got one here on Earth."

"The Hellmouth?" Daniel asked.

"Exactly. Thor, can you scan the area under Sunnydale High School for a similar disturbance?"

"One moment." Thor manipulated his jewel device, and pressed some buttons on his command chair. "I find only the faintest traces of a similar signature. Nothing on the order of power the scans found at Ba'al's stronghold."

"That could be because our portal is sealed right now, more or less dormant, waiting to be opened again." Willow posited.

"Are you suggesting that Ba'al possesses an open Hellmouth? And if so, what does that mean for us?" Hammond inquired.

"That might be the case," Willow said. "From the sound of things, anyway. His new 'army' that the Tok'ra were told about sound like they might be Turok'Han. They are nasty, nasty things."

"How do we stop these two rock hand guys?" Jack asked.

"Sunlight, decapitation, disintegration, are the only ways I know of that work." Willow said. Jack whistled.

"That leaves us at a significant tactical disadvantage, even if we know what we're fighting." Hammond sighed.

"Not necessarily sir. When you say disintegration, how thorough does it have to be?" Sam asked. "Are we talking total vaporization or would a normal explosive do it?"

"Well, they'd shrug off shrapnel from a grenade, but fire damages them badly. They do regenerate though. I think they'd die if you could blow them into enough pieces. What good does that do? You've only got so many missiles, and he has shields around his fortress anyway," Willow sighed.

"What about explosive ammo?"

"Not strong enough," Jack added. "If they can take shrapnel from a grenade and shrug it off, the small explosions aren't going to make much difference. You'd need something like a golf ball of C4 to stick to them center mass."

"Sir, that's not bad!" Sam exclaimed.

"What did I say?" Jack looked puzzled.

"Think about it. We make 'sticky grenades'. Balls of C4 coated in a strong adhesive. Then we launch it at them, and when it sticks, we hit the detonator and blow it."

"Fine in theory, Major," Hammond interjected. "But what kind of numbers are we talking here? We wouldn't be able to manufacture devices like that to use on a large-scale."

"Unscheduled offworld activation!" Sgt Harriman shouted, as the base klaxons went off. George and SG-1 left the briefing room to go to the control room. "What have we got, Walter?" Hammond asked the tech sergeant.

"Recieving Tok'ra IDC, sir."

"Open the iris." Hammond instructed. A second later, Walter's hand was recognized by the handprint scanner and the iris slid open with a metallic scraping sound. The all-clear signal was transmitted to let the Tok'ra know it was safe to come through. Anise, followed by two Tok'ra carrying a heavy box, stepped down before the gate closed.

By this time, the others had already come to the control room, but were led back into the briefing room, as Anise was escorted up to them. Thor was still waiting in the room, looking as though it were all business as usual.

"Anise, how'd it go?" Hammond asked, once everybody had gathered again.

"The Tok'ra high council has sent along designs for a weapon to fight these new warriors Anubis has, along with a small supply of liquid naquadah to power the first batch of the devices."

"That's good news. How long do you estimate it will take us to build the devices?"

"Given what we know of your technical capabilities and industrial capacity, we estimate that you can have a working prototype in one month, within two months after that you can produce up to a hundred units per month."

"That's pretty slow."

"We know. But it is better than we could manage with our current shortage of personnel and resources."

Thor interjected. "I believe that I can provide you with a prototype made from Earth materials based on the given schematics within a few hours."

"If that's the case, we could go into production in a week," Sam said. "As long as we can take it apart and put it back together again with our given tools, we can manufacture all the parts we need pretty quickly."

"Your help is greatly appreciated, Thor." Hammond said.

"Yeah, thanks. Really!" Jack said.

"You are welcome, O'Neill. You have saved my race several times over; it is the least we can do for you."

"Well then, people, you all know what you're doing. Get to it." George Hammond said, standing up from the table. The others stood a moment later, and O'Neill, Anise, Thor, and Willow teleported to the Moon Base.

* * *

Ba'al stood on the flagship of his fleet, looking out the front window of the Pel'tak. Buffy/the First smiled. The super-Ha'tak had successfully come out of hyperspace in close orbit in the shadow of Jupiter, where the Asgard wouldn't be able to detect it. from their moon base.

Ba'al smiled cruelly. "As the Tau'ri say... they will never know what hit them," he gloated. "Soon, they will be only a memory, and we will rule the galaxy," he smiled at Buffy/the First. "I believe I feel rather giddy."

Buffy/the First laughed. "Pretty soon, you'll be the boy with everything," the evil entity said in the bubbly blonde's voice. "It's going to be hell shopping for your birthday..."


	33. A Wanted Man

Chapter 33 - A Wanted Man

Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Ba'al and Buffy/The First looked out the window of the Pel'tak at the impressive view of Jupiter below. There was no other planet exactly like it. Sure, there were other gas giants, and supergiants. Some of them were even made up of the same gases, in similar mixtures. However, Jupiter in and of itself was unique among the planets of this galaxy.

It wasn't really a planet.

Scientists thought they knew what Jupiter was made of, because of remote probes, gas chromatography... but the gravitational forces of Jupiter prevented any human-made object from coming much closer to it than its rings.

The Asgard had made much deeper scans of every body in the solar system, and had determined that Jupiter's core was a very dense ball of heavy elements, including traces of naquadah and trinium.

While Jupiter's core WAS a ball of heavy elements, it was hollow. Jupiter was, in fact, the Ancients' first attempt at a Dyson sphere. Anubis, before he was destroyed, had made plans to set up a base there, scavenging it for Ancient technology to use in his war against, well, everybody. The good people at the SGC had made that impossible, not having given him enough time to implement the plan.

Now, as they looked down at the planet, Ba'al and Buffy/The First looked with glee at what was available for the plucking.

"What are you waiting for?" The first asked her Hand. "This is like your birthday and Christmas rolled up into one! Beam down there!"

"I don't mind if I do," Ba'al replied, waving to one of his Turok'fa guards. Instantly four guards beamed down, Ba'al beaming in behind them just in time to see them burst into flame in the light of the Dyson Sphere's miniature sun.

"That is most inconvenient. I will have to find some way to shield my warriors from the effect of the sun..." Ordinarily it wasn't really a problem, because night attacks were often more effective anyway, given that his warriors could see fine in the dark.

"That would be a neat trick," The First said. "I know that there's a lot of good Ancient technology here, but I don't think even their sensors can measure out exactly why the sun causes my babies to burn. It's not a reaction to UV light or anything stupid like that, or vampires would simply have learned to wear sunblocck."

"I will put Thoth to researching it."

"OK, but I still think it might be a waste of time."

"Anything that might result in me having more power, or more flexible ways to use my current power, can't be a waste of time."

"Oh, I know. It's not a waste if it turns out you were right."

Ba'al looked around carefully. He was in the middle of a great courtyard, and could see the sun, and the world around him stretched in every conceivable direction. The ground under his feet seemed to be perfectly flat, but looking up into the sky and seeing buildings behind the sun, and down to the horizon in every direction... it was impressive by anybody's standards. The Ancients had gone to some trouble to set up a stable artificial biosphere here; plants renewed the atmosphere, providing fresh oxygen in the air, animals, several different kinds of animals he could see, none of which seemed to be particularly sizeable or dangerous. It was almost as though somebody had turned Earth inside-out, and blew it up to ten times its normal size.

"First things first, we need to get control of the Ancient computers of this place," Buffy/The First reminded him.

Ba'al nodded. "Let us go then." With no more words, Ba'al began to trek across the city, to the huge building he could see sticking out of the 'equator' He figured if anything screamed 'center of power', it was that place.

* * *

Xander secretly delighted in herding the Potentials around. He was usually able to get them to listen through judicious applications of food. Those who did best with their training got extra rations of ice cream. It worked for him. It also helped that he was the object of a large percentage of the girls' crushes... and those who weren't crushing on him at least considered him crush-worthy, even if one of the other guys (or girls) had taken their fancy.

And while the former reason for their obedience was fine by Isabel, the latter was becoming increasingly annoying. As he got more and more involved in the running of the logistical nightmare that was a house chock full of adolescent girls, he had less and less time to spend with Isabel. Added to the fact that a seemingly ever-growing percentage of those girls seemed intent on stealing Xander for herself, and it began to get really irksome. They were always inventing some reason for him to pay attention for them. They feigned small injuries, both physical and emotional, to cry on his shoulder. Xander, who'd never been a particularly popular boy, was suddenly overloaded with interest in him. They seemed to like Kyle just as much, but his status as the boyfriend of The Slayer seemed to make him untouchable. Unfortunately, being the boyfriend of an alien princess apparently afforded no such luxury.

It didn't help her annoyance that a few of the girls who started to play this 'steal Xander' game were nearly as hot as she was. Kennedy had that 'hot latin bad girl' thing going on, and Jessica was a southern belle very versed in the ways of enticement. There was Kim, a pretty, slender asian girl, and Kara, a brunette with a penchant for short skirts and an apparent dearth of underwear since she never seemed to be wearing any.

"Skanks," she said, bitterly.

"Who skanks?" Maria asked, walking into the empty living room, seeming rather confused.

"Them," Isabel said, nodding out the window at the girls subtly and a few not-so-subtly attempting to catch Xander's eye as he worked on the large extension to the house they were putting up to house all the extra girls. "Just look at them!" She pointed at Melody, who at just fifteen sported breasts that made Isabel feel boyish... and seemed proud of the fact, given her nearly lurid display of her over-generous cleavage in a tight, low-cut red tank top. Isabel made a clucking sound with her tongue. "Ugh!"

"Well yeah," Maria said. "But I don't know what you're upset about. They're little girls growing up, and they are trying out their newfound sexiness in a safe environment."

"Have they considered that it might not be so safe if they get fresh with my man and I have the urge to scatter their skanky molecules as lawn fertilizer?"

Maria chuckled. "Relax, Isabel. You seem to be missing a key bit of information."

"What?" Isabel frowned.

"Look at Xander."

Isabel shifted her focus from the many scantily clad young girls to her guy, with his toolbelt and flannel shirt staring intently at a nail, completely oblivious to the many enticing displays going on around him.

Isabel's harsh look softened into a smile. She beamed at Xander, who seemed to notice right away, and looked up to smile back at her. He looked down at his work again immediately, taking another few nails from his belt pouch and holding all but one in his mouth. He grabbed his hammer again and pounded them each in, moving along the board as he did to anchor it to the other pieces of the frame.

"I love my man," Isabel remarked. Maria made a mock-gagging sound.

"Hey!" Isabel cried, smacking Maria playfully as they both grinned at each other.

"He's one of the good ones." Maria said. "Anyway, we need stuff. The girls have eaten all the food and we have a desperate need for more deodorant and shampoo. Wanna go shopping?"

Isabel nodded, and they trotted out of the living room, Isabel grabbing her coat from the rack by the door.

* * *

Xander looked up to see Isabel and Maria leaving the living room window. He wiped his brow on his flannel sleeve. "Phew!" It was hard work to look at his work and nothing else, with all the something elses around here to see. He glanced toward the van as Isabel and Maria got into it. He then fell over as Kennedy and Kim popped up directly in his line of sight and started making out.

"Aah!" Xander said, looking away after just a tiny moment of watching. He turned away from the two girls' display only to find Melody hanging upside-down from one of the support beams. Her giant breasts were threatening to pop right out of her top. "Aah!" he repeated, quickly turning further along, only to find that in this direction was Kara, sitting on a lawn chair with a glass of iced tea. Noticing Xander, she uncrossed her legs, to cross them the other direction. And she wasn't wearing any underwear.

"Aaah!" Xander supplied, as he ran into the house in search of some hot soapy water to wash his eyes out with.

Jessica watched him run into the house, and as the screen door slammed shut, all the girls in the yard shot each other looks and then broke down into fits of giggles. It was fun being hot. Kennedy and Kim, however, went back to making out as the other girls all moved to actually start the work they were supposedly doing.

* * *

SG-1 were testing out the first prototype of the new vaporizing ray gun. Jack wanted to call them phasers, but was voted down. In true military fashion, it was instead given the official designation M-49 Tactical Assault Rifle.

"Calling it a TAR doesn't really say what it does." Jack said.

"Jack..." Daniel whined.

"I'm just saying," Jack responded. "Phaser. P-shoom! Descriptive. Phaser."

"Naming issues aside, how's it coming along, Colonel?" General Hammond asked, stepping up to the firing range where they'd set up. It was rare for Hammond to be off Earth, but he, along with several other brass, were visiting the Alpha site for a demonstration of this new weapon.

"Well sir," Carter supplied, "It's working perfectly in all the simulations and preliminaries we've had so far."

"Okay then, let's see it," Hammond replied, stepping forward as Carter nodded and led him over to the range.

"The power core isn't liquid naquadah but rather a very tiny reactor with an even tinier amount of solid-state weapons-grade naquadah like we use for our larger naquadah reactors. It's thinly coated with neutronium to prevent radiation leakage, focusing the energy a normal Zat loses back into the reaction. As a result, the maximum power output is more than an order of magnitude higher than an average Zat."

She opened the weapons case and pulled out something that looked like a cross between a Goa'uld hand device, a can of tennis balls and an old Nintendo Power Glove from the 80's.

"The weapon is mostly made of trinium instead of steel, making it quite a bit lighter than a normal gun would be. The reactor.." Sam began to explain.

Jack cut in. "That's the thing that looks like a can of tennis balls?"

Sam frowned at him, but nodded. "Is attached to the underside of the forearm," she slid the glove-thing on, and the reactor sat neatly under her arm. "The contols on the top determine the power setting and change the weapon's mode."

Jack raised an eyebrow, but it was General Hammond who spoke. "What do you mean by 'mode'?"

Sam smiled. "Well, as you can see, in its current state, there is no indication that this is a weapon; it's essentially a mobile computer. This is modified from an armband GDO. However," she slid her hand along the top panel, pushing it forward. The front portion, which had looked like a small, underfilled silvery balloon, pushed off the front and a handle popped down into her palm, which she gripped. "In this mode, the weapon is active. It handles like a pistol, but is a lot more firepower. For instance, set to maximum."

Sam aimed downrange. There were a few objects to choose from; a large metal target which looked like a defunct jeep, some old shells, what looked like a regulation rifle range target, an old tank, and some multicolored plastic targets. Sighting quickly down the small notches in the top of the hand-grip, she squeezed the trigger. Instead of the familiar lightning-arc of a Zat gun, what resulted was an almost instantaneous lance of intense blue light, followed by nothing.

Jack frowned. What had gone wrong? No impact, no explosion, no nothing. Had Sam missed? The shot had been almost too fast to follow. He wasn't even sure which target she'd been shooting at, opting instead to look at her the whole time. "What gives, Carter?"

Carter's beaming face turned to Jack, and adopted a confused face a moment later. "Sir?"

"No boom?"

"Sir.." she nodded downrange. Jack looked up, and stared, trying to determine what exactly it was he was supposed to see. "Carter?"

Hammond looked amused. "Colonel, I think you'd do best to start counting the targets."

Jack looked up and counted. There was the jeep, a few smaller targets such as old shells, a paper bulls' eye, and the... wasn't there a tank before?

"It's just... gone? That's it?"

Sam frowned. "Sir, this weapon, on full power, is meant to pretty much vaporize anything. There are still some bits of the tank up there, I'm sure... but everything in a four-meter radius of the point of impact is essentially dust and gas, sir," she said proudly.

Hammond smiled widely. "Well done, Colonel, you've outdone yourself with reverse-engineering the Tokra's plans."

Jack looked almost ready to cry. "But... no boom!" Sam tried to suppress a laugh as she swore he was trying hard not to pout.

"What is the term, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked. "Silent, but deadly."

"There's also a sniper mode," Sam explained. "You can use the screen on the bracer to aim the device, and zoom in to up to 20x magnification. This thing can pinpoint a target up to a mile away."

Jack's eyes went from near-tears of disappointment, to shock, to near-tears of joy. Then his eyes narrowed. "What's the rate-of-fire like?"

Sam nodded, approving of his apprehension. "The full-power shot takes several seconds to recharge; the capacitor in the handle fills at a constant rate from the miniature reactor. However, the variable power settings use less of the capacitor. It is capable of settings lower than that of a regular Zat," Carter pressed a couple buttons and pointed downrange again. "Like this."

She squeezed the trigger, holding it down gently, and the intense lance-like configuration from before was replaced with a steady stream of what essentially looked like floating sparks. "At these power levels, the blasts begin to lose cohesion, and so only travel about fifty yards before rapidly dissipating. But you could keep your trigger down for years, firing about four shots per second. These aren't enough to knock a person out, but will give them a nasty little shock and burn. This configuration will do minor damage to flesh, but won't damage armor or, for instance, a ship's hull, so they'd be safe to use inside a cargo ship. At a charge size large enough to consume the reactor's output at a rate of one shot every two seconds, it's more like a regular zat blast. The capacitor holds enough for about ten shots at that level, and can be drained in as little as two seconds. Then it needs a little while to refill, although you can fire again before it's completely full."

"A most formidable weapon, Major Carter." Teal'c stated, as a congratulations.

"Thanks, Teal'c. The Tok'ra knew what they were doing, and the Asgard made some... tweaks of their own, not all of which I understand. But we know how to build them. We're working on a production facility right now. In two weeks time, we should have the first line up for small-scale production. We have enough neutronium to make approximately twenty-five right now. The Tok'ra and some of our own offworld teams are in the middle of sourcing more so that we can begin distributing them as soon as they're ready to be mass-produced."

Hammond nodded. "Excellent work, Major."

"Thank you, sir."

Hammond walked away to talk toward the other brass, who were very impressed. One was not as happy with it as the others; Colonel Chekov was worried about what this would do to the balance of military power on earth. He would have to let his government know to take the necessary measures.

* * *

Dawn walked out of her bedroom happily. Walking past the door to Willow's room, she heard whimpering. Dawn pouted cutely. Willow shouldn't be upset. Deciding to comfort the girl, she stepped into the room. Not seeing anybody she was about to turn around and leave when she heard it again. It was coming from the walk-in closet.

Her eyes narrowed, and she reached back to grab the stake she kept tucked into the back of her belt. Holding it, she opened the door, and abruptly dropped the stake in shock at what she found.

There, on the floor, curled up into the back corner in a ball, sat Alexander Lavelle Harris, rocking back and forth like rain man.

"Xander!" Dawn exclaimed. She moved to hug him, but as soon as she touched him, he looked up at her, and shrieked.

Dawn ran out of the closet and shut the door behind her, collapsing against it and sinking to the floor. "What did they do to him?" she asked out loud.

Running down the stairs a few moments later, she walked out into the backyard and found a bunch of potentials. They were pounding nails into planks, screwing in screws, tightening bolts, and making out. Wait, what? She walked over the Kennedy, who was, indeed, still making out with Kim. "Hey," she asked angrily. "What did you do?"

Kennedy looked up at Dawn. "What? We like each other."

"Not to her, to Xander!!" Dawn shrieked.

"Oh, we just flirted with him a little... It was no big deal." Kennedy stated.

"No big deal? Do you know what Isabel is going to do to you when she comes home and finds her boyfriend in a catatonic state?"

Kennedy's face fell. "Oh, shit."

"If I didn't think it was her right to kick your ass, I'd totally kick it myself. Who else was involved with this? I know you and Kim couldn't have done it on your own."

"Just some of the other girls..."

Dawn sighed and pulled out her phone. She dialed the moon base's number, and said angrily, "Hi Liz. Can you pick me up? I have to get out of here before I start squashing nymphomaniacs." A few moments later, Dawn was gone in a flash of light.

Kennedy sighed, and went to the other girls. "Guys, we may have a problem."


	34. Brains of the Operation

Chapter 34 - Brains of the Operation

Disclaimer: I own neither, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

Max sat and watched Liz work. She was navigating the Asgard computers these days with skill and focus. Max was very proud of her, but also a little scared. Liz was like the rest of them; a Human hybrid. Or, more precisely, an advanced human, pushed to the evolutionary limits of the human form. It seemed like the more she stimulated her fabulous brain, the faster it grew. Or maybe activated was the better term. Which was excellent for the research, since the whole idea was to create a human-like hybrid of an Asgard which would allow the body to hold the whole intellect of one of the big-headed aliens.

Loki and Heimdall had been fascinated at the resilience of Liz's brain. It was doing things which should be impossible, almost. While most people still believed the myth that humans used 10% of their brains, modern medical science had proven that this was not true; although the whole brain had not been mapped and not all parts of its functioning were understood, every part of the brain shows activity at some point or other. However, they'd discovered that it wasn't how MUCH of the brain is used that determines its capacities, but rather how dense it was.

Comparing the brain-scans of the differing Scoobies and Roswellians, they had formed a coherent theory. People possessing the Furling gene had significantly smaller neurons; they were more energy-efficient, and formed a much higher number of connections due to their decreased size allowing for greatly increased density. Willow's brain was incredibly dense.

People possessing the Potential gene had smaller synapses, allowing for faster travel of nerve impulses. This made it possible for their reflexes to be increased well beyond human norms, and also allowed them some improved brain density since there was less empty space between individual neurons. They also possessed the potential for significantly increased muscle density, allowing a woman who merely looked toned like an aerobics instructor to approach male powerlifter kinds of strength with the right stimulus.

And lastly, the completed Ancient Gene changed peoples' neurons; rather than making them smaller or closer together, they had a slightly different chemical composition which greatly improved both the speed and bandwidth at which a neuron could transmit electrical impulses.

Heimdall conjectured that the combination of the Furling gene and the completed Ancient gene would allow an asgard consciousness to be downloaded successfully into a mostly-human host.

Loki, being Loki, went above and beyond the call of duty, as well as far across the ethical line of science, by installing himself in a slightly modified clone of Dawn Summers. She was much shorter than Dawn at a mere five feet tall, with honey-blonde hair and much more slender than Dawn's current babe-a-licious 19-year-old form. Loki thought that all of Dawn's 'lumps' would be horribly inefficient especially given the significantly increased energy needs of this powerful, ultra-dense brain and compact muscle mass. Loki, seeing that Dawn, whose combination of all three special gene types made her a unique template for the process, had skipped the middle 'testing' stages and just got on with it. Having already grown a clone body for Dawn, he had plenty of detailed genetic scans, samples, and material to work from.

The result was quite remarkable. Nobody would mistake Loki for Dawn, but you could see that she might have been related.

When Loki finally completed the transfer into the newly cloned body, and walked into the control center of the moon base, Heimdall was working at a computer console, as was Liz.

"It appears to have been an overwhelming success. The advantages of this physical form are signifcant. I feel... very good." Loki said, startling the others, who looked over at... her.

Max acted first, getting up, and pointing a hand at the new girl. "Who are you?"

Before she could answer, Michael and Maria came through the door behind Loki and waved. "Hey, Buffy!" Maria said.

"That's not Buffy," Liz corrected.

Michael was immediately confused. What other short blondes could be at the moon base? He took in Max's posture of alarm and put his hand out toward the girl.

"Answer me," Max said.

Loki's big, dark eyes slowly blinked. "I am Loki." she said simply.

"Fuck me!" Maria said.

Loki's gaze focused on her. "Although I am now capable of sexual reproduction, you are of the incorrect gender to allow that act between you and I."

Michael snickered at that, and everybody looked askance at him. "What? It was funny!"

Max smirked, resisting the urge to laugh himself.

Michael continued, "You look a lot like Buffy. It was an easy mistake. You could be her sister."

It was Liz that hit on it when Michael mentioned it. "That's because she IS her sister. You used Dawn's body as a template for your new body, didn't you?"

"That is correct. It is... odd. This is an excellent body, but there are many things to get used to. For instance, why is looking at Max and Michael eliciting an unknown chemical response? Is this a reaction to their pheromones?"

"Hot guys are hot guys," Maria agreed.

"Fascinating," Loki said.

"So does this mean we've found a viable solution?" Liz asked. "You can engineer Dawn's template to produce genetically diverse clones with the necessary areas perfectly reproduced?"

"It is half-complete," Loki said.

"I thought you were a guy?" Michael asked. "Aren't you a little weirded out by the sex-change?"

Loki blinked again. That very Asgard reaction looked only slightly out-of-place on his pretty new human face. "Asgard long ago removed our sexual functions. We do not, strictly speaking, have a gender. Or didn't. I suppose I am female now," she conceded.

"Wait," Liz asked. "What do you mean half-complete?"

"The pattern identified as the Potential gene is recessive, and carried on the X-chromisome. It resides in the extra 'arm' that is not present in the Y-chromisome."

"So that's why the Slayer is always a girl; guys don't have the necessary recessive quality."

"Exactly. But none of our people is going to want to settle for an inferior male body when the female ones are so much more efficient and capable."

"We'll just have to keep on searching for a Y-chromosome equivalent, then." Liz sighed. Major breakthrough and still so far from the goal.

"Loki's a bit of a masculine name," Maria said. "We need to find a name that better suits the new you."

"I do not understand. I am Loki. Loki is my mind, my thoughts, my memories. Why does my body matter?" she asked.

"Because now that you're a girl, and you want to be able to... you know.. sexually reproduce... you're going to have to adapt to your new gender identity. People on Earth who change genders usually change their name to a similar name of a more masculine type."

"I... still do not understand. I was not aware that humans had the capability to change their gender."

"Well, they don't, not in the true, genetic or reproductive sense," Liz said. "However, people can approximate the physiological differences of the opposite sex to change the image they project to others."

"Why would somebody wish to appear to be the opposite gender?"

"Gender is really important in human society," Liz explained. "Some people believe that their physical form does not match with their mental gender identity; they _feel_ more like the opposite sex, and it depresses them that people judge them - often unfavorably - on the standards for their physical gender."

"But the mind does not have a gender," Loki said. "It is just information. It is the body which determines gender."

Liz and Maria shot each other a look, while Liz struggled to explain the concept of internal gender identity to a member of an asexual race. "Look, it's like this..."

"Men are men, and women are women," Maria said plainly. "Certain things are more masculine than feminine."

Loki blinked. "How can a thing be masculine or feminine, unless it is a representation of a living, sexual organism? A chair does not have a gender. A book does not have a gender."

Maria lit up. "Ah, but you're wrong. Certain things have gender connotations. Like, if the chair is funky and pink, it's probably considered a more feminine chair."""

Loki blinked again. _She must be really confused_, Liz thought, _if she's doing it that much._ "It is difficult to understand why this should be true."

Liz hit upon an idea. "The mind is genderless, because it's just a construct of information. But," she explained, "The mind is also influenced by the brain in which it resides. The brain of the average woman differs somewhat from the brain of the average man, both structurally, and chemically." She paused and structured her argument. "These differences cause a... separation of viewpoints. Together with the physical differences between men and women, these are somewhat magnified."

Loki nodded; he could understand that chemical differences could influence a mind forced to reside in different brains. "Alright. I understand up to that point."

"Well, not even DNA is a perfect blueprint for a person's brain. Many factors affect the brain's development. Even two brains of the same gender may not follow the same patterns. So we talk about averages, and generalizations. Brains that respond in a way that is similar to the _average_ woman when presented with certain stimulus, are said to be feminine. This phenomenon is due to womens' larger corpus callosum, allowing for better cross-communication within the brain, improving emotional processing, subconscious processing - or intuition, and multi-tasking. This feminine brain structure has a tendency towards better right-brain access, making women more creative, and emotionally driven. On average. Combined with the chemical presence of higher amounts of estrogens and progesterone, this brain combines with a desire to nurture. Women _care_ for things, and people. And the presence of multiasking functionality and experience juggling caring for many different things has promoted a natural desire for order and organization. On average."

"Unlike men," Maria snarked, "Who leave their dirty clothes all over the floor."

Loki took in this new information and nodded. It was making somewhat more sense to her now that Liz was explaining in biological terms.

"Men, however, have larger brains, including a larger cerebral cortex. While their corpus callosum is the same size as a woman's, when taken with the larger brain, the frontal lobes can process faster than cross-brain communication can occur. This leads men to be more focused; they generally only engage one portion of their brain at a time, but engage it more fully. They tend to be less emotional and more logical. They don't multitask as well, but focus on specific tasks to their completion better. Again, these are all generalizations. But the physiological differences, and chemical differences, do play a part in how the body affects the mind inside."

"You're giving me a headache," Maria and Michael complained at the same time.

Liz stopped, ashamed for going on for so long. Loki blinked and then flashed her pretty smile at them. "So my female anatomy is going to color my brain function for as long as I live. I need to embrace my... femininity." Loki said. "You suggest a new name... what name?"

"How about Lexi?" Maria suggested.

"That is the Ancient word for 'book'. I do not understand how a book is feminine."

"Alright.. Lori?" the girl shot back.

"Lori. It is like my name, but... softer."

"Exactly."

"I suppose that, for purposes of interacting with you humans, you may call me Lori." Loki said dubiously.

Heimdall had watched this entire conversation with rapt fascination. She would have to watch Loki and document how being given a physical gender changed his, er, her personality.

"Will you have the powers that we have?" Max asked.

Lori shook her head. "I do not believe so. The parts of your brain that make it possible for you to do the things you do are wholly subsumed with supporting my mind, which holds much more information than even your admittedly advanced human brains normally use for conscious processing."

Liz nodded. "So you get the physical improvements, but humans actually have the advantage in that those with the special genes that affect their brain structure leave free space for the extra abilities they have, whereas you use it all up with just your thoughts and many, many lifetimes worth of memories."

Lori nodded. "That appears to be the case."

"Well, we still have to solve the male problem." Liz said.

"You make it sound like an ad for E.D." Michael said. Maria slapped him as he chuckled.

"E.D.?" Liz asked. A moment later she caught on. Max smiled widely when he saw the exact moment of understanding as her eyes widened, and she moved over and slapped Michael playfully as well. "Pervert," she grinned.

"Hey," Michael shot back. "You started it, not me..."

* * *

Ba'al was furious. The First was furious with him. They were having little luck gaining access to the sphere's central control core. Without the appropriate codes, they were locked out. There were plenty of writings in ancient, and though Ba'al could read most of them, he was unable to unlock the answer.

"Still no luck?" Buffy/the First asked Ba'al.

"No, these damned scripts contain nothing of use, but the answer must be here somewhere. The Ancients were nothing if not predictable. They never built anything significant without instructions."

"But I thought you could read Ancient thanks to what you learned from Anubis' files."

"I can. But apparently not all of it. Either that or this particular wall is in code. But I don't have enough familiarity with the language to decipher it."

"We could try to capture Daniel Jackson. He is the expert at this sort of thing, right?"

"Well, yes," Ba'al admitted. "But capturing him would be nearly impossible without giving away my presence in this system. And until this Sphere is online and can give up its secrets, I won't be ready to show my hand."

"What about Thoth? He's your go-to guy for research, right?" Buffy/the First asked using Buffy's 'oh-so-innocent little-old-me' tone.

"Thoth is a superior scientist, but his forte is physics. What is needed here is a generalist... a computer expert and linguist and a lateral thinker who can understand the nuances of Ancient technologies..." Ba'al;s thoughtful scowl suddenly broke into a mischievous grin. "And I know just the worm for the job..."

* * *

Nerys sat happily at his wide table in Ba'al's palace, stuffing his face with every kind of delicacy his more creative subjects had been able to devise. He was therefore quite perturbed when a Jaffa came in and pounded his chest in salute. "My lord Nerys, you have a visitor."

"Send him away, I'm eating." Nerys said dismissively.

The jaffa mumbled, "When are you not?" under his breath, but was spared punishment because Nerys was at that moment distracted with grabbing a small cake filled with a tart fruit and cream and smelling it to savor its yummy aroma for a moment before stuffing it into his mouth.

"Oh my, that's good..." he looked over at the head cook who waited by the end of the table. "Who made me this one?"

Before the cook could answer, the jaffa asked again. "My lord, I believe this visitor cannot be made to wait.. he is a messenger from Lord Ba'al."

"Oh, alright, send him in." The jaffa pounded his chest again, and with a bow, returned to the doorway to escort in Ba'al's First Prime.

The golden-tattooed jaffa spoke to him with an air somewhere between equality and disdain. "Lord Nerys, I come with orders from your lord, Ba'al. He requires your presence at once."

Nerys nodded. "I'll begin to make preparations to leave as soon as I'm done my brunch."

The First Prime adopted a harsher tone. "No," he said. "Your meal is over. I was told to return with you, without delay."

"But I'm famished! I won't be any use to lord Ba'al if I'm malnourished..." the fat Goa'uld said.

Corumak, First Prime of Ba'al, was not a man to be put off. Ba'al rewarded competence, and harshly punished the lack thereof. Corumak had gotten to his current position because he was shrewd and ambitious, but also a strong, canny warrior who combined great combat prowess, the great charisma of a born leader, and the wisdom to do what he was told as quickly as possible. "Lord Ba'al told me that I was to have you come at once, and..." he paused as much for time to think of an appropriate motivation as for effect. "If you attempt to delay I am to cut out your tongue."

"My tongue... but how will I taste my lunch?" Nerys said, afraid. He treasured the sating of his appetites for food and wine above all else. His appetite for pretty women came in a distant second. Losing his tongue would be a horrible blow, and was nearly unthinkable to his eccentric, but brilliant, psyche.

Corumak growled, and drew a knife, and began to sharpen it. "Okay, okay, I'm coming," Nerys complained. He grabbed a roast bird leg in one hand, and a bundle of grapes in the other. "Prepare my ship," he said as he waved the bird leg imperiously like a sceptre. His few jaffa guards scurried off to follow orders. Nerys walked around the table to join Corumak. "OK, let's go while I still have enough food in my stomach not to feel faint." he said. "Oh, hold on..." he ran back to the table and grabbed another of the small cakes. "For the journey." he explained. The jaffa turned away, then rolled his eyes as he walked out with Nerys following behind.


	35. Particles and Particulars

Chapter 35 - Particles and Particulars

Disclaimer: I own neither, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.

* * *

"Wow," said Dawn. "You look like a blonde version of me at twelve." she said, walking around Lori's body. She had been beamed up to the moon base near the end of the discussion, and was flabbergasted at finding the unconventional Asgard in a human body. _Her_ human body. "Why twelve? I look babelicious now that my body's nineteen."

"Yeah, you do..." Michael said, which caused Dawn to preen while Maria elbowed him in the belly, knocking the wind out of him. "Ow!" the boy wheezed, doubled over. A few seconds passed seeming like hours, and the pain seemed to subside to a dull ache as he gasped for breath.

"You should know better than to say things like that out loud, Michael... no matter what you think." Max counseled. The only response to his chiding was a halfhearted grunt from the other boy.

"Serves you right," Liz said, showing Maria her solidarity.

"Unfair," Michael said. "That's entrapment!"

Dawn just giggled. "Sorry. Still getting used to it. The hotness. It's new."

"Yeah, and totally unfair that a squirt like you gets goodies like those," Maria said, having been staring a little bit herself.

"It's mostly Willow's fault, and I'm afraid guys, that it's all for her." Michael's eyes glazed over thinking about the newly statuesque Dawn making out with the fiery redhead, but he wisely said nothing about it.

Maria elbowed him again for good measure anyway.

Dawn took pity on him. "Maria, would you mind helping me? I need somebody to help me with Xander. Some of the potentials have kind of... broken him."

"What?" she asked incredulously.

"He's catatonic and rocking back and forth in Willow's room talking about bad girls and naughty thoughts. Apparently every single one of the potentials was doing their best this afternoon to get him to sleep with her... or at least get him good and worked up. He took one look at me and shrieked, but I thought maybe a girl his own age..."

"Isabel will be home really soon. I came up here straight from our shopping trip," Maria explained, "since Michael and I have our rooms up here. But Isabel drove home. She might even be home already. And there may be Potentials with designer shoes wedged up their butts. I wouldn't worry about it, though... she'll take care of him."

"I hope so," Dawn supplied.

* * *

Xander had fallen asleep in the corner after rocking aqnd worrying his nervous energy off. Isabel found him there, curled up in a ball when she went to put a couple new things she had gotten for him in his closet. Unconsciously, he started to sniff when she entered the room. Without opening his eyes, he seemed to follow his nose to her, put his arms around her, and cuddled up into her, falling with her onto the bed. A little taken aback, she didn't know what was going on, but she didn't mind cuddling with him while he slept. Kicking off her shoes, she curled up against him into a more comfortable position. He responded, the tension seeming to go out of him once she was settled into his embrace.

_Well,_ she thought, _I guess it's safe to say he even loves me in his sleep._

At that point, she smiled to herself and let herself doze off to sleep with him.

* * *

"I don't understand, Lord Ba'al." Nerys said to him. "You pulled me away from the best feast I've had in days for this?"

"Is that a problem?" Buffy/The First asked.

"This is an insult to my intelligence!" he exclaimed. Ba'al made a gesture and the Jaffa guards in the room stepped closer to surround Nerys with their imposing size and presence. These were the elite of Ba'al's warriors. His personal bodyguards, incredibly skilled and completely loyal. Plus, Nerys didn't think the First Prime liked him very much as he was sharpening that knife with which he had so coolly threatened to remove his tongue before. "I mean, that is to say, er... I should be able to do as you require, Lord Ba'al."

"That is better, Nerys. Do not forget your place. You are very useful to me because of your unique combination of intelligence, cowardice, and predictability. But do not take liberties. I am your superior, and you are not... irreplacible, by any stretch of the imagination." the System Lord reminded.

"Right, yes, of course. Cowardly and predictable!" he half-asked, half objected. "I suppose that does sound like me." he acceded. "OK, let's see these ancient writings." he said. Faith in his authority reassured now that he was on the job, he looked at one of the Jaffa. "And get me something to eat!"

* * *

"Unscheduled Off-world Activation!" Walter cried, hitting the button for the general alarm, level 1, as was protocol. The lights around the base began to glow and a low-level siren sounded a couple of times.

General Hammond stepped out of his office. "Any transmissions?"

"No, sir." Walter replied. "Hold on... incoming GDO code..." Walter pressed a few buttons and clicked his mouse on a window to minimize it, uncovering the one below it. "It's SG-1, sir?"

"What?" Hammond asked. It was about this point that Jack walked into the control room.

"What's going on?" Jack asked. Carter, Daniel, and Teal'c showed up immediately after him. "We were in the mess hall, having chow. Is this an alien invasion, or can we return to our pie?" he whined. After a moment, he appended, "Sir."

"Apparently, you are attempting to come through the wormhole right now, Jack."

"Man, I hate it when I have to abandon my pie." the Colonel complained.

"They had SG-1's GDO code." Hammond said. "Mind telling me who knows it besides you and our computer?"

"Well, it's not like any of us have given it out." Jack replied.

"We've only sent the newest code a few dozen times, max. Even if they intercepted the transmission every single time, there's too small a sample for them to have worked out our encryption protocols, even with computers as fast as the Asgard use." Carter supplied.

"So what do we do?" Daniel asked.

"Open the door and see who's really knocking, I guess," Hammond said. "Open the Iris and send the all-clear signal once the defense teams are in place."

Walter complied and a moment after the iris retracted and the all-clear signal passed through the wormhole, four people stepped out of the vertical watery plane of the event horizon.

Four very nervous people who had a squad full of marines pointing p90's at them, as well as two .50 cal machine guns and a couple of small laser-guided rockets.

* * *

"Umm..." Colonel O'Neill said to his team on the ramp, "What's with the warm welcome?"

"Jack," Daniel elbowed him in the ribs and pointed up to the control room, where SG-1 were standing with General Hammond.

"We appear to have arrived already, O'Neill." Teal'c said.

"But something's totally wrong, here," Daniel pointed out. "Where's the burying stone?"

"Sir?" Carter asked.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Jack said. His hands slid up, pulling off his sunglasses on the way to his 'OK, you got me' pose.

* * *

"Sir?" the Carter on the gate ramp asked. As usual, Carter's ability to make that particular word speak volumes about their current predicament was still in full effect. As far as Jack knew, only the real Carter could fill a whole book with that one word.

"Time loop?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm betting alternate universe." Daniel said.

"You're on, Danny." Jack asked. "You in, Teal'c?"

"Indeed. I believe it is more likely to be a time loop as well, since we have never before experienced alternate universes hooking into the Stargate system, and the Quantum Mirror is safely away at Area 52."

Daniel frowned a bit at that. Jack would drag him fishing at this rate. Probably, Jack would make him dig up nightcrawlers as bait 'because I know how you love digging!' This had been a sucker bet.

"So what do we call them?" Jack asked.

"Well, we know we're real and we belong in this time, so let's call ourselves us 'Prime'." Carter suggested.

"And them?" Daniel asked Sam.

"Let's call them us '2'."

Hammond piped in, "Well, the you '2's need to be dealt with. Once they come through medical, you'll conduct interviews with them to see if they're you, or doubles of you."

Daniel added, "Maybe Willow would be able to help get some answers if they turn out to be us. She understands quirks of quantum physics that even Sam hasn't touched yet."

"Magic is just a really, really advanced form of science," Sam insisted. "She might help me understand what happened if some kind of vanishingly improbable occurrence happened with the gate."

"I'll put in a call." Hammond said.

* * *

Over the next 48 hours, all manner of tests and interviews were conducted on SG1 '2'. They all seemed to be who they claimed to be, but didn't experience anything strange that could explain their apparent duplication. They seemed to be from this universe, or as close a one as possible; they had memories of things that had happened complete up until as recently as yesterday when they'd left on a quick offworld hop to one of the established trade partners to bring back an important proposal. They didn't, however, know anything about the Scooby gang. When Willow scanned them, she said that there didn't seem to have been any tampering with their minds.

"I was right, Jack." Daniel said. "Alternate universe. Pay up."

"Now, that hasn't been proven," Jack insisted. "Just cause they've got strange memories doesn't mean they're not from a future where they've been erased or something."

"That is a possible scenario," Teal'c agreed, "However, it is an unlikely one."

"Has anybody seen Sam," Jack asked.

"Samantha Carter Prime and Samantha Carter 2 are both in 'her' lab, O'Neill. They are attempting to discern why there is no detectable cascade failure from our doubles, if they did indeed come from an alternate universe."

"See?" Jack said. "Time travel. Gotta be."

* * *

Isabel and Willow were at the SGC the next day when they had yet another emergency piled on top of the current mystery.

"Unscheduled Offworld Activation," Walter's voice came over the intercom.

SG-1 hurried to the gate room and found an active gate, and a closed iris that was quickly becoming red-hot.

"Didn't we already see this show?" O'Neill asked.

"Just because Sokar's not around doesn't mean nobody else can try the trick," Daniel supplied.

"Goa'uld are nothing if not scavengers; perhaps one of them recently came upon Sokar's notes about the process." Teal'c added.

Willow chimed in at this point. "What exactly is going on?"

"Somebody is using a particle accelerator to attempt to melt the iris covering our stargate." Walter explained.

"A particle accelerator?"

"The iris is situated approximately 3 micrometers from the event horizon. Once closed, any matter attempting to pass through the stargate is prevented from re-integrating after passing through the wormhole; essentially, nothing bigger than an atom can cross while it's open. This allows us to get radio signals, but won't allow matter to pass through."

"But it allows streams of pure energy because the particles involved are smaller than an atom?" Willow asked.

"That's the theory." Walter shot back.

The trinium alloy which currently comprised the Iris was able to withstand a great deal more punishment than the original Titanium one, but with repeated dialing, the iris would eventually be breached by the particle beam.

"It's a bit sad that there isn't a naquadah facing on it that would allow it to feed its excess energy into the stargate." Willow said.

"What?" O'Neill asked.

"Well, the metal's heating up because it's absorbing the excess energy from the particle beam. Naquadah, and especially the Stargate itself as a device which uses that property of naquadah, can absorb massive amounts of energy. Especially when a wormhole is active, it can bleed off any excess through the wormhole to stabilise the connection, but the particle beam isn't near strong enough to keep the wormhole open for more than a few seconds past the 38-minute window. It would allow the Iris to bleed off the excess energy rendering it pretty much impervious to this kind of attack..." she conjectured.

O'Neill goggled at her. "You sound like Sam. You haven't known about the Stargate that long, how do you know so much about how it works?"

"I cheat." was all that Willow supplied in answer.

At that moment, both Sams came into the room. "This again?" Sam Prime complained.

"I know." O'Neill said.

"We really should install some kind of system to bleed off extra energy. Maybe naquadah facings to help channel the heat back into the gate as usable energy," Sam Two said.

Daniel shook his head defeatedly while Willow beamed.

Daniel looked up again. "You know, last time, Sokar gave us an ultimatum. Goa'uld are fond of big, flashy gestures and such, so where's our ransom note? Where's the announcement that the great-and-powerful so-and-so will reduce our planet to ashes?"

Walter shrugged. "We've recieved no attempt at communication since the wormhole opened, just the particle beam melting at our Iris."

"What if it's not a weapon?" Isabel asked. She'd been so quiet the others had almost forgotten she was there.

"What do you mean not a weapon? It's a high-energy beam weapon shooting through a wormhole at us. What else would it be?"

Isabel shrugged. "Tight-beam transmission?"

"This is somebody's attempt to communicate using the particle beam as a carrier wave? Why not just use a radio?" Sam Two asked.

Sam Prime answered. "A radio transmission goes out in all directions, and even if it's encrypted, it can be decrypted, especially with fast enough computers. Maybe this is somebody's attempt at a private communication?"

"Well, if that's true, how do we 'read' it?" Daniel asked.

"Walter, can we detect any modulation in the beam?" Willow asked.

"I don't see how we could; we'd need to open the iris and put measuring equipment behind it to get readings accurate enough to attempt to decrypt. And if we tried to read it from the other side, we would only detect the wormhole's event horizon."

Willow piped in with an idea. "Is the beam stationary, fixed on one point at the iris, or is it moving back and forth?"

"Thermographic imaging shows that there's a wobble in the beam. You can see that the hottest part moves slightly over time, but the thermo camera's not going to be sensitive enough or fast enough to detect..."

"Hold on..." Isabel said. "Can you show me the thermographic image composited from over the last two minutes?"

"Give me a minute," Sam Prime said as she started attacking her computer terminal with astonishing dexterity. Two minutes later, she has a composited image, which makes Isabel go pale.

An image burned into her memory. A picture of five dots arranged in an uneven 'V' formation.

The Royal Seal of Antar.


End file.
